The Other Seasons
by TheHobbitWhoLivedOnFire
Summary: 20 years have passed since their fight with Pitch, and a new villain has arrived, one with the power to create and twist memories around inside your head-powers strong enough to turn Jack's loving sister against him. Now they must go on a new journey, but they can only save the failing Man in the Moon if they summon those with the powers of the path that the moon follows.
1. New Villain, New Heroes

It had been 20 years since their battle with Pitch, and the guardians were settling into what used to be their normal lives before the threat of the Boogeyman—or at least, as normal as the life of a magical legend can ever get. North's yetis continued making toys in his ice palace, and Bunnymund stayed in the Warren most of the time preparing his eggs. Easter had become more enjoyable for him, knowing that he'd never have to deal with "that bloody wombat" ever again, whatever that meant. Sandy was smiling as usual, sending out dreams to even some of the teenagers in the world great dreams. Tooth was probably the one who seemed the busiest—or maybe it's just the fact that she liked working so much and only left her Tooth Palace for big holidays.

Now Jack—He was being just as mischievous, fun, and handsome as ever. Why, at that very moment, he was flying around North's factory, arms outstretched and the cold feeling of wind kissing his face. Since he didn't have any proper home, he stayed with North most of the time, and on Christmas he would ride with the large, Russian figure in his sleigh. North had become almost a father to him, caring and forgiving like most fathers were. But that's what you get if you spend half your time with the guardian oriented around the holiday of giving. The other half, however, Jack was helping the other guardians with their duties, and whenever he visited Tooth her mini-fairies always followed him around, cooing and awing at him and his slightest move.

You could've guessed that the Guardians had been keeping their little schedule and living their lives peacefully for the past 20 years.

But no one would've ever guessed what happened next.

Jack hovered in the air for a moment before landing gracefully on top of the Ice Palace. For miles he could see nothing but snow, and that's how he liked it—the cold was his heaven, and the children and animals that played in the snow his angels. He despised anything that was hot or remotely different, except the warm smile that Tooth gave when she sees him…

He was relieved to know that Bunnymund wasn't around to see the expression that Jack had on his face…the rabbit would hold it over his head forever.

Suddenly, the roof of the palace underneath him grew steadily warmer, and Jack, not being used to the sudden change in temperature, flew up into the air immediately.

A large antenna shot out of the dome that he was rested upon earlier, beeping and glowing red at the end. It grew taller and taller until the glowing orb at the end was out of Jack's sight. He had never seen any king of technology here at the North Pole, since most of it was run by magic. But the white-haired teen would've thought this piece of machinery was useless until he saw what it did next.

Out of the glowing end of the large antenna came out lights streaming with color shot through the sky and stretched out to as far as the eye could see. Green, blue, violet, and gold were the first colors that Jack noticed, several flashes of a deep crimson or a glimmering silver popping up here and there as the lights continued to travel further off into the distance.

All the winter spirit did was look on at the beautiful strips of color, and after a minute only realizing why North was releasing these into the sky: the guardians were being summoned.

* * *

North stood tall in front of the table in the Globe room as the four other guardians walked in to meet him. As usual he offered them food, and as usual they declined. The intimidating figure just stared at the rest of them, silence engulfing the large, cavernous room.

"Eh-em," coughed Bunnymund, "so, are you gonna tell us why we're here or what?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt all your days," said North, his grammar being terrible as usual, "But we have big problem in our hands."

He looked up towards the window in the ceiling, where the moon shone brightly even though it was only an hour after noon.

"Man in Moon says that we need help."

"Are you serious?" said the Easter Bunny again, "Why on earth does that bloke always think that we need help?"

"Bunny, I—"

"I mean, c'mon. We defeated Pitch already, and if we could take down that drongo with a guy like Frostbite over here, we can take down plenty. Besides, who needs—"

"BUNNY!"

No one had ever heard North yell like that before.

But his anger had left the giant just as soon as it came, and he straightened himself out before turning to the moon again and speaking. "Please tell them what is big news."

A bright beam of light from the moon shot down from the sky and onto the blue-and-silver square on the floor with the letter `G' on it and an image appeared in the moonlight. It was that of a woman, steadily reaching old age and unrecognizable. She wore a steel grey robe that flew gracefully around her, the woman's eyes being the exact same shade and looking as if they were drilling into your mind. She had her hand outstretched before her creating some sort of blue orb, making her long, stick-straight hair seeming lighter than it should be.

"Her name is Oblivion," said North, as Jack hovered over the heads of the other guardians to get a good look at the image on the ground, "She is master at toying with the minds of her victims, switching memories and thoughts around. But she is still a new villain—Oblivion has no idea of what the Guardians can do. So with us together—"

North was cut of by the image of the Memory Destroyer vanishing, and a new one replacing it on the letter `G'. Four people were in the picture, three of them completely unknown to the four guardians, one of them being a young girl with a dress made of leaves, several exotic flowers growing around her skirt. Her arms were covered with leaves as well, and in her hands something that looked like a whip made out of vines. The crown of flowers that ran around her head was accentuating her wonderfully green eyes. A boy next to her seemed fairly short, with flaming red hair that reached around his shoulders. All he wore was an orange t-shirt and jeans, but in his hand was a wooden statue of dragon, painted black and carved with pure accuracy.

The girl beneath him was definitely the youngest of them all, long blonde hair flowing around her. Her wings were a multitude of colors, lime green being the dominant one, which was a beautiful contrast to her whispy yellow dress.

But what surprised the guardians most was the fourth person in the figure. He was a tall, lanky teenager, with pale skin and even whiter hair. He held a wooden staff that was curved at one end and a smirk on his face. In his outstretched palm, a single snowflake was landing gracefully into it.

Jack.


	2. Unexpected Visit

None of the guardians understood the purpose of this new picture being shown by the moon. Arguments rung about the Globe Room as Jack just continued to stare at the four, mainly the little girl with the blonde hair. He couldn't help but feel that he'd seen her before, as if she was a distant memory or dream that he would be wishing to get a hold of. Even the other two in the picture were familiar, even though Jack was a hundred percent sure that he had no idea who they were.

_Jack._

A voice was calling out inside of his mind, shocking him so much that he almost fell out of the air. But as haunting and deep the voice sounded in Jack's head, it pressed on.

_Jack. There is no need to fear me._

It exploded almost instantly in his head. He couldn't believe it. After all this time—320 years, to be exact—the moon was finally talking to him.

_I'm glad that you understand now Jack. But I'm here for more than just a little chat. Do you see the people in the picture below?_

He looked down once more at the four, all of them either being younger or older than Jack. He felt pity for both himself _and the_ other three, how they were taken away from normal lives and given powers that they never wanted.

_Yes, I do._

_They are the seasons, Jack. They represent the path that the moon takes, changing the weather around the earth. Spring, summer, fall, and winter, of course, being represented by you._

_But what's the purpose of you showing me this? _thought Jack, and the moon's voice paused for a while, hesitantly responding.

_Because the four of you are the ones who have to fight. Not North, not Bunnymund, not Tooth, and not Sandy. It has to be the four of you._

_Wait, what do you—?_

But Jack couldn't finish his question. The Man in the Moon had vanished from his thoughts, leaving him in a sort of trance.

Reality shot back to him as he heard the voices of the older guardians around him arguing.

"Guys, GUYS!" Jack called out to them, and the other four quickly silenced and snapped their heads towards him.

But he couldn't speak. A little tingling sensation sat in his chest, almost dragging him down to the floor, and making him feel weak. But it took all of his willpower to keep him standing up right and leaning on his staff.

"You okay, Jack?"

He looked up to see Tooth in front of him, showing obvious concern. But Jack, trying to be the strong one, stood up a little straighter and nodded at her question.

"It's just…" Jack said quietly, "The Man in the Moon just spoke to me."

And after the short uproar that was caused, Jack began telling them what the Manny had said. Even though he didn't say much, it was enough to enlighten the other guardians.

"I still don't get it," said Bunny, while Sandy rolled his eyes silently. "Don't give me that look, ya gumby."

The rabbit turned his sharp green eyes towards Jack. "What I don't get is why none of us can help. I mean, we defeated Pitch all right, but that was all of us together. What better could a couple of teenagers do?"

"Bunny," said North sharply towards the Easter-oriented guardian, "As much as your question is absolutely fair, we can't argue with Man in Moon."

"I'm not really sure about this either, North."

All of the guardians turned towards Tooth, offering the biggest surprise to the guardians. In all of the time that they've known each other, Jack had never heard of the Tooth Fairy rooting _against _North.

They stared at the lone female guardian in silence.

"What?" she said, shrugging, "First off, Bunny's right. The four of you who were 'chosen' to fight are really young, so we should at least have someone to go with you. And second, how are we so sure that the voice that you heard was the Man in the Moon? I mean, none of us have ever heard him speak to us _directly _before, so none of us know how he sounds like. And besides, North said himself that this 'Oblivion' woman that we're talking about can control memories and thoughts. What if _she _was the one that was talking to you?"

None of the others dared to argue, and neither could Jack. Even though he was sure that the voice that had spoken to him in his head was male, he couldn't help but keep wondering if Tooth was right. Maybe their new enemy was more powerful than he thought…

_I see that you want proof that I am in fact the Man in the Moon, Jack._

The white-haired spirit didn't respond this time, but just kept listening to the soft, hypnotizing voice.

_Well, here is your proof. _

Out of the large window came a bright, blinding stream of moonlight shot down onto the top of the large globe. The guardians were brought into a panic as a figure slowly drifted down from the moon. It was that of a young girl—several years younger than Jack—wearing a flowing yellow dress, long blonde hair and bare feet, and glittering, delicate wings, exactly like the little girl in the earlier picture that the moon had shown.

But there was a whole new sense of familiarity that occurred to Jack as he stared upon her, and the girl looking like the main definition of summer as she landed safely on top of the globe. She opened her eyes, and Jack was hit with a memory of three hundred years ago, staring into those same, brown eyes that were large and innocent, and how scared they looked when they felt as if they were going to fall into the freezing ice water below them—

After all these years, Jack had seen his sister again.


	3. The Summer Spirit

The little winged girl sat on top of the globe, Jack's eyes taking her in. All he had of his sister was the memory that was hidden in his teeth, but the bright, rosy-cheeked sprite looked completely different from the girl in his memory. Jack could still tell that it was her, however. This girl had the same rounded face, stick-straight hair, small figure, and beautiful dark brown eyes.

She stood as still as a statue on top of the part of the globe that showed the North Pole, eyes wide open, and staring around her blankly. Even though she was obviously awake, her eyes scanned the room as if she were in a daze, hypnotized by the sight around her.

"Hey!" she calls out to the guardians below her, "Could you guys tell me—woah, woah, woah!"

All of a sudden the little girl was falling, hands flailing in the air as she failed to try and stabilize herself. The guardians watched in terror, but just before she hit the ground Bunnymund was below her, and the summer spirit fell into the Easter Bunny's arms, looking even smaller and more fragile than before.

Despite that fact that she was saved from an almost lethal fall, she didn't seem to be all too happy caught and held that way. "Hey, let go of me you damn rabbit!" Her voice still sounded soft and innocent, even with the intended harshness in it.

"Crikey, that's a great way to repay someone that just saved your bloody life," retorted the rabbit, and set her down unceremoniously on the floor. Looking ruffled, she got up and flapped her wings angrily at the Easter bunny.

All four of them stared at the new arrival, but only Jack's eyes looked upon her hungrily, wanting to stare at those beautiful brown eyes again—eyes that he's never seen up close and in real life.

"Pippa?"

Jack didn't even know how he knew her name, but that didn't matter. Because the little girl's head snapped towards him, his blue eyes meeting hers. The winter spirit began to walk towards his sister, and she just stood there, eyes looking on, and only when Jack was in front of her as he kneeled on one knee to reach her eye level did he noticed that she wasn't very warm towards him, despite the fact that she was a spirit of summer.

"Pippa, is that really—"

"Save it Jack," she gushed angrily. Immediately, the warm little tingle inside Jack's chest was gone, and replaced by the feeling of being broken. _Why was she acting this way? _

As if she had read his mind, she said, and this broke Jack even more, "I'm not that girl anymore. And you're just going to have to deal with it."

The sprite motioned for him to walk away from her, and he obeyed, head hanging glumly and defeated. Silence followed the short brother-and-sister feud, and North was the brave one who spoke up first.

He coughed, and then said, "So, Pippa, was it? Um, My fellow guardians and I would like to know why you are here."

She didn't respond, but just kept staring at Jack coldly, and he tried his best to avoid her gaze.

Was it possible to think that someone has completely changed even though you have no memory of him or her at all?

"I'm here because the moon sent me."

Another silence.

"God, you know, I can read all of you minds, and I know that you're surprised, so don't keep it in."

It showed on the guardians' faces that the last statement alarmed them. They weren't sure whether she was lying or not, but to be safe, for the whole duration of her speaking, the tried to keep their minds blank.

That was near impossible.

"Around three hundred years ago, and even further on back then, I was human, just like you five. But I knew even back then that I wanted something much more than a human life—I wanted something that would make me memorable."

This was another difference that Jack and Pippa had—Jack had never wanted his powers, but got them anyways. Pippa got what she wanted, but how was just about to be explained.

"I lived in the Dark Ages version of a little town called Burgess. It was nearing March, and the ice over the lake was becoming thinner and thinner. But I went there to think of my old brother, who had died there just a year before."

And her eyes fleetingly glanced over to Jack, and for half a second he could see the old warmth return…but it was gone as soon as it came.

"All of a sudden, the ice underneath me started to crack. But at the time I was more educated on how to get off thin ice, so I started to crawl carefully back to the banks of the pond. I felt safe, until—"

She paused, taking a deep swallow, as if remembering the exact same moment. The guardians waited eagerly for her to continue.

"Until my hand and knees were frozen on to the ice. At this point I was panicking—almost wriggling against the cold sheet over the water, but I was stuck too well and…I fell in.

"But before the water got to me though, I saw the sun, high up above me, and if it had eyes, it was looking back at me. A blinding beam of sunlight shot down to me and lifted me up out of the water and saving my life. The sun kept me warm, melted the ice off of my hands, and then sent me to the moon, where I became the spirit that you see before you now. But that was a long time ago, and I was up there with the Man in the Moon until he sent me down just a few moments ago, and—"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up," interrupted Bunnymund, waving his hands around him, "You mean to say that you've _seen _Manny himself?"

It seemed as if everyone was waiting to hear the answer to that question.

"Not only did I _see _him, but he talked to me," she said, "he even told me who froze my hands onto the ice."

And this is where the girl's eyes stared solidly at the lone winter spirit in the room, followed by the gazes of the other guardians. This was also the point where Jack was sent into a whirlwind of confusion. He had absolutely no recollection of _ever _seeing Pippa again after he became Jack Frost, much less freeze her over ice.

He would never have _any _intention of trying to kill her.

The summer spirit walked over and stared up at him, her cold eyes battling with the warm brown and saying in a whisper, "The sun melts the snow, Jack. And I would've melted your heart right now if you had one."

**A/N: Hey, Andrea here! I know that there aren't many people reading this fanfic, but I want to thank you all the same. Every single sign of a readership could make me happy :) Enjoy, and I promise that I will try to update daily. But this is the first fanfic that I will actually plan on finishing. Thank you!**


	4. Snow and Summer

North had let Pippa stay in his ice palace, but every other room was too cold for her, so for the time being he let her stay in a room that was adjoined with North's private workshop, one of the places with enough heat for Pippa to last. The other guardians stayed over night in the palace as well, and the next morning they were going to try and solve their new dilemma with Oblivion.

And Jack—well, he hadn't left his small room ever since Pippa's arrival. It was already nearing midnight, and being the motherly type that she is, Tooth went to go and check up on him.

When she reached his door, Tooth knocked, sold immediately striking through her hand as she made contact with the wood. She knew that Jack wasn't this cold, so something must've been going wrong. He was only turning the weather to freezing when he was upset, or even angry.

Tooth hoped that he wasn't feeling either way.

"Jack?" she called out when there was no response at the door, "you okay in there?"

No response.

_Well, he wouldn't mind it if I just said hi, right? _She thought, and opened the door, and peeking inside, she saw no sign of the winter spirit.

She had never been inside his room before, much less any of the other guest rooms that Bunnymund and Sandy slept in. But she wasn't expecting Jack to be living here as a guest, so Tooth had always thought that he would get his own personal room here. And right she was, even though the room didn't hold much inside. Just a bed and a table, both small and covered with frost. The walls were a light blue, and as Tooth stepped closer, she saw drawings on them. They were mostly of a teenaged boy and a young, ten year old girl, laughing, playing, sharing jokes, ice skating—

"You finished, yet?"

The fairy's head shot up and saw that Jack had his back against the ceiling, waving his staff around lazily making it snow inside the already chilled room.

She had meant to say 'are you okay,' but her mind wandered back to the small artworks on the walls.

"Did you draw these?" said Tooth, and Jack hovered down slowly so that he stood right beside her. The fairy couldn't help noticing that he was a few inches taller than her, and his eyes weren't the usual icy blue, which is the color the color that they attained when he was happy, or at least in a good mood. Now they were a cold, almost grey shade of blue, showing his sadness or dissatisfaction.

Tooth would never understand his eyes.

"Yeah, I did," he said, referring to the drawings. He placed his hand on top of one of them, concentrated, and as he pulled away his palm the little sketch came to life and the boy and the girl were ice skating around the room, wide smiles on their faces.

"Is that you and your sister?" said Tooth, noticing the wispy style of the older boy's hair and the staff he was carrying. Jack nodded slightly.

"It was supposed to be us."

Tooth could do nothing but stare at the white-haired spirit as sorrow continued to fill his eyes. Now they were almost a steel grey, like the sky on a cloudy winter morning: sad and remorseful.

A short silence passed as Jack turned towards the fairy.

"Could you—do a favor for me?"

Tooth wasn't sure how to respond, but just nodded, and the grey eyes turned the slightest hint back to blue. "Could you go talk to Pippa for me? I mean, if it's okay with you…could you tell her that I'm sorry if she thinks that I'm the one that killed her. It's just—"

The fairy placed her hand on Jack's cold shoulder and he stopped speaking, staring into her bright violet eyes.

"It's going to be okay, Jack," she said, her voice sounding so soothing and calm that a smile spread across his face. He placed his hand over hers, which felt warm and dainty against his palm.

"Thank you."

* * *

The young summer spirit wasn't inside her room, however. Pippa was down in the cavernous Globe room, fireplace lit and melting the frost that was starting to form on her hands. She didn't normally play with fire, but she thought it appropriate for the time being because every other room in the Ice palace was either chilly or freezing. And only on that cold night in the North Pole did she discover how wonderful it felt when the flames danced over her hand. They didn't hurt her or anything, and instead danced around her like the water would during summer at a beach.

Ironically, even though she was the spirit of summer, she had never actually spent summers down on earth. She _did _however create them, and then the moon would repay her by letting her create a temporary summer on the desolate, rocky moon. And from June to September she would swim in the small pool that she made or bask in the light of the distant sun…

"What're you doing down here?"

Pippa jumped up in surprise and pulled her hands away from the fire at the sound of the voice. It was the tooth fairy, glowing in the orange light. The summer spirit couldn't deny that she was beautiful, pearly white teeth and glittering wings, which were in ways similar to Pippa's, except that the summer spirit's were more soft and flowing.

"Um, sorry, it's just—" the Tooth fairy's cheeks flushed, even pinker than earlier, "I was just wondering where you were, since I checked your room and all—"

"No, it's fine," said Pippa, but didn't stay cheery for long. "Why are you looking for me?"

The tooth fairy didn't speak, so the summer spirit decided to go into her mind, like she did to the others earlier today.

_What am I supposed to tell her? _Pippa read the older fairy's thoughts, _I mean, I can't tell her that I was sent by Jack, she would get—_

"Why did Jack Frost put you up to this?"

The tooth fairy was suddenly silent. "So you _do _read minds."

Pippa nodded. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Well, I—" Tooth rubbed the nape of her neck with her small, delicate hand, "Jack just wanted to say—"

"You know what, just forget it. If this has anything to do with Mr. Snow White, I don't wanna hear it."

And Pippa turned back to the fire, almost plunging her hands in. But Tooth didn't leave. Instead she just looked on the girl, wings glittering behind her back. She could've been considered beautiful, if only she wasn't so harsh all the time.

"Can I ask you something?"

The summer spirit turned her head slightly, "What now?"

"Well, I was wondering—"

"You always wonder. You have no idea how many times your mind wandered off in that meeting earlier."

Tooth couldn't help but laugh. "Anyway, I was just wondering…why were you chosen? I mean, from the story that you described earlier, it didn't really seem like you did a good enough deed to be chosen. But that's how the rest of us were—"

Her voice drifted of, and the hard stature that the little girl maintained suddenly vanished, replaced by a sad, remorseful pose. Obviously Tooth had struck a very sensitive part of her story. After all, none of the guardians really like talking about their pasts anyway.

As Tooth turned around to leave thinking that this was a bad idea, Pippa spoke up, voice as elegant and warm as the fire.

"Can I tell you a secret?"

And the tooth fairy hovered towards her and kneeled beside the summer spirit, waiting for her to speak again.

"I lied about earlier," said the little girl, brown eyes glowing, "I didn't just go on to the ice and drown. I actually saved a little boy there. The ice was cracking underneath him, so I went out and saved him. Plus, he was actually a boy that I'd met before—a childhood friend, if you will."

Pippa blushed; as if the boy was much more special to her than just a friend, and Tooth couldn't help but smile. Young love was always something that was so rare these days that you couldn't help but feel great when you see it.

"And then it was my turn to be on the ice," the summer spirit continued, "I lied about another thing at this point. The Moon never told me who froze my hands onto the ice. But I still knew that it was Jack."

Tooth looked at her in astonishment. "How?"

Only then did Pippa take her hands out of the fire and rub them against her arms, trying to warm the rest of her. "I saw him."

"WHAT?" The tooth fairy shot up into the air so high that she almost hit the ceiling of the tall globe room, "HOW WOULD YOU—I MEAN, JAMIE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO SEE HIM—"

"Shut up, will you? You'll wake everyone up!" Pippa whispered loudly, standing up as well, but immediately shrinking back down to her kneeling position as a cold wind blew through her.

"Oops, sorry!" Tooth whispered back, and slowly floating back down to the floor. "But, how?"

"Well," Pippa said, hands cupped together tightly, "I didn't really see Jack Frost, but I saw Jack—as in, my brother Jack.

"I saw him the way that I wanted to see him. Brown hair, brown eye, and that beautiful smile. But he was wearing a blue hoodie, and his staff had frost on it. He looked different, and yet he looked the same, you know?"

It was obvious that Tooth had absolutely no idea what she meant.

"But I did see him freeze my feet onto the ice."

And Pippa turned back into that sad little girl, facing the fire. The tooth fairy couldn't do anything, except tell her "Jack would never do that. And whatever you think of him now, he says sorry. It's just—he doesn't remember doing that at all."

A sad smirk spread across the summer spirit's face, and Tooth placed a hand on her shoulder. Pippa looked to her with her warm, brown eyes, and giving Tooth a look that a child would give to her mother.

"You'll keep my secret, won't you?"

And the tooth fairy hugged the little girl as a sign of assurance. "Thank you," Pippa mumbled, and only then did Tooth realize how alike she and Jack sounded.

_I guess they aren't completely different at all._


	5. The Meeting

**A/N: Hey guys! I just want to apologize early if this chapter isn't that good. I was kind of rushing it, so I have a feeling that it won't be as good. But I'm also here to tell you that if you have any ideas for the story, than PM me or review if you're a guest. Thank you, and I love you all :P -Andrea**

"C'mon, North!" said Bunnymund, "we can't just stay around here and wait for this new villain to come and mess up everything!"

It was the next morning, and the guardians were in their meeting, trying to decide what to do with Pippa and Jack. Tooth, Bunnymund, and Sandy all agreed that they should go out and fight Oblivion, if ever they can find the other two seasons first. But North just wouldn't allow it.

"I told you, Bunny," he said, almost screaming, "and how many times do I have to tell you? I am _not _sending a bunch of teenagers to fight off new villain alone!"

"Well, that's why two of us should go with them!" Tooth was a fluttering fancy, flying in every direction that North was facing, "We're not idiots to send them out alone, so we should go with them!"

"But that won't even make difference! It's only those four that can fight, and what if they lose? Then Oblivion will go after you!"

North was now heaving, sitting at the breakfast table with his face in his hands. Jack stared, hating and loving him at the same time. As much as the snow spirit wanted to go out into the world again, with North being the wall separating them, he couldn't help but admire the fact that he cared so much about them all that the thought of losing them—

His train of thought was stopped by something that entered into his mind. It was a voice, which he recognized as the Man in the Moon, but now it sounded more hoarse, week, and it was so faint that it took a long time for Jack to understand it, but once he did, he received this eerie message:

_Help me._

And the trance disappeared, and Jack was gasping for air, his eyes becoming clearer. He heard someone gasp, and to his right he saw Pippa waking up out of the trance as well.

They locked eyes for a moment, and Jack understood completely.

_She could hear him too._

But the other guardians were still arguing, snapping him back to reality. Tooth and Bunny were still fighting for their side, and North stood unmoved. Even though the summer spirit was several feet away from him, he could sense her distress. How? She was radiating heat, similar to what Jack does, except that he makes it colder.

"STOP!" he yelled, catching the other guardian's attention. The fight was getting out of hand, Bunny's paws balled into fists, something he only did when he was _very_ angry.

"Look. I know we're al stressed," Jack began, stepping towards the older guardians, "But besides what to do with us, we have a bigger problem in our hands."

"And what the bloody hell could that be?" said Bunny, waving his silvery-blue paw in front of him.

It wasn't Jack who answered his question however. Pippa stepped forward as well, and she spoke in a woeful voice:

"The Man in the Moon is in trouble."

Silence. Nothing but silence. It seemed as if that even the crackling fore had gone silent, everyone taking in what the summer spirit had said.

"It can't be," said Tooth, concern and fear darkening her face, "But—how do you know?"

"He talked to us," said Jack.

To his surprise, the other guardians didn't react at all. Jack guessed that it wasn't much of a surprise after the first time, but a question popped into the winter spirit's mind: _why did the moon only talk to Pippa and I?_

"What'd he say, mates?" the rabbit drawled, paws back to their normal, dangling state.

"Not much," Pippa responded, "All he said was 'help me', but sounded as if he was weak—"

She paused and took a deep swallow before she continued, "—or in pain."

Bunnymund turned slowly towards the red-clad guardian, who was still seated. "North, you heard them."

But North didn't move, and Bunny kneeled in front of him, trying to meet his eyes. "I know how much you didn't want this to happen. But it's either we gather up all the other season, or we let Oblivion take over the world."

Jack was surprised to hear the level of care in his voice, something that was very rare from the Australian guardian. And it was one of those moments where Jack would admit that he had respect for Bunnymund. _I guess that I'm not the only one who thinks of North as a father._

And the Russian guardians lifted his eyes, stood, and faced Jack and Pippa. He was intimidating, especially with his cobalt blue eyes staring icily.

"Fine. You two may go. But two other guardians will go with you."

"I'll go."

Nobody found it to be surprising that Tooth had volunteered.

"Good," said North, "Anybody else?"

"Bunny should go," said Pippa, and to everyone's surprise, especially to the rabbit's, she was being serious.

"Well, no time to argue." North clapped his hands twice and one of the yetis came up, carrying a large bag of snow globes. "You will use these for traveling."

And so the yeti tossed the bag to Jack, and he caught it swiftly in his arms, the snow globes being lighter than he thought. He pulled one out, and stared at the swirling colors inside, a portal waiting to be made.

"Where should we go?"

The others just stood there in silence, but Pippa knew the answer immediately. "We're going to Kelda's Hibiscus. I guess that we'd want to see the spring spirit first, since she's the one that can take us to fall."

And so Jack shook the globe, threw it, and it smashed into millions of pieces, and in the swirling portal an image of a large flower appeared.

"Wait, wait, hold on," the rabbit had to raise his voice to be heard over the noise that the portal made, "Are you telling me that we're actually seeing _the _queen of spring?" His ears fell flat back against his head, and Jack had known this as Bunnymund's way of blushing. He tried his hardest not to laugh at how pathetic he looked.

Pippa smirked mischievously at the rabbit, "Why the hell do you think I chose you to come along?"

The Easter oriented guardian looked at her, and gave her a look that was half angry and half amused. "You meddlesome little drongo."

And without turning back, they jumped in, their journey beginning.


	6. The Queen of Spring

One dizzy, portal ride later, and Jack, Pippa, Tooth, and Bunnymund were standing in a large, beautiful field, with flowers that went on for miles. Peaches, reds, yellows, pink, and purples were spread across in wide varieties, but there were strange colors in the flowers as well. As Jack bent down to the ground, he saw what looked like leaves, but turned out to be green flowers. He turned, and near Bunnymund's feet were gold and silver ones, and pebbles that looked like diamonds walking on spindly legs across the lush, dark soil.

But what surprised Jack the most was that when he touched the flowers, they didn't become encased in frost or wilt and die at his cold touch. Unlike what happened to Bunnymund's flowers when he worked with him over the summer, these ones stayed alive—they even looked brighter, and more vivid, the yellow sunflower that Jack had brushed his fingers upon looking taller, more beautiful, and—

All of a sudden Jack became dizzy. He didn't know why, but his balance was off, and his vision was blurry. He tried to regain his footing by leaning on his staff. _How was it possible? He wasn't doing anything except standing in a field…_

All of a sudden it hit him. As he stumbled through the fields, getting dizzier and dizzier, the flowers continued to grow taller and taller.

The flowers were taking away his energy away.

Lucky for Pippa and Tooth who were in the air and flying, because they weren't affected at all by the flowers that littered the ground below. But it wasn't just Jack who was loosing energy. The usually calm and cool Easter bunny was now swaying, large feet almost trampling the flowers.

"Damn it you two!" cursed Pippa, having such an adult tongue for a small, little girl.

"What do we do now?" Jack couldn't see it, but Tooth was frantic, practically fluttering nervously in the air.

"I knew this would happen!" Pippa was nervous as well. She flew in front of Bunnymund, and shook the rabbit's shoulders. "Hey, fuzzy! You okay?"

So response, although Jack gave out a short laugh, even though he couldn't even see straight.

"Oh god, I think he's almost done," Pippa motioned for Tooth to go with her, "We have to get him up into the air!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Tooth yelled, as Pippa tried to grab Bunnymund by the arm and desperately lift him up into the air.

But it was too late.

A second later, Jack and Bunnymund hit the ground, hidden in the ever-growing flowers.

* * *

The first thing that Jack noticed as he woke up was the smell. It was strong, sweet, and floral, filling the winter spirit's nose with a mixed smell of roses, fruit, and the tiniest hint of sage. It was pleasant, and seemed to help calm down the large headache that he had developed.

Sitting up slightly in a cotton-soft bed, he looked around him, eyes burning from the sudden light. The room had walls of bamboo, a small little waterfall sitting in the corner. Sunlight came in from and open window, and as Jack looked to his left he saw the Easter Bunny in bed as well.

"Oh thank god, you're awake."

This voice was unfamiliar, but it was soft and inviting flowing like the water in a fountain.

Jack looked towards the foot of the bed and saw three figures standing there: Tooth, Pippa, and one that he didn't recognize, but could only be identified as the Queen of Spring.

When Bunny had first called her that, the winter spirit had always thought of a woman much older than Jack, but as he saw her for the first time he noticed that she could only be two or three years older than himself. She wore a sort of helmet, made out of skeleton leaves to match the kind of armor surrounding her arms. Her dress made of a combination of leaves and flowers, flowing gracefully around her knees even though she wasn't moving. Her face was soft and as peachy as her flowers, and her eyes were a completely different shade in the light. As of now they looked green, but they still shifted steadily to different colors.

"Sorry about the flowers," she said, "they weren't supposed to take that much energy. They're a defense mechanism—meant to steal whatever powers that any intruders might have."

And the voice paused, and Jack's vision cleared up enough for him to see that the girl was smirking. "It was working a little extra for you, Jack Frost. You must have a lot more power than we expected."

Jack's voice came quickly as my vision sharpened, "Where am I?"

"We're in Kelda's Hibiscus, Jack," it was Tooth who was talking, violet eyes shining brighter than ever, "After you and Bunny were knocked out, Kelda here saw you and brought you inside. Pippa and I were worried sick—"

"Actually, only you were worried," the summer spirit spoke as if she couldn't care less that the two males were almost killed.

"How long was I out?" Jack asked. But before anyone could respond, a moaning, rumbling noise to his left. The Easter Bunny was waking.

The girls walked over and stood at the side of his bed, blocking Bunnymund from Jack's view.

"Bunny, are you awake?" Tooth said, her voice meeting no response.

Pippa gave a sigh of exasperation. "Aw, c'mon, fuzzy!"

There was mumbling from the bed, and the three girls leaned in to hear what the Easter Bunny was saying.

"Sorry fuzzy. But you gotta speak louder if you want to be heard."

More mumbling, and finally, in an audible voice, Bunnymund said "Never call me fuzzy again and just get a woolly dog up ya."

"Thank God he's back to normal." Tooth, Pippa, and the newly discovered Kelda moved back to reveal Bunny slowly rising from his bed. He rubbed his paw against his head, probably enduring the same headache that Jack had.

"Well, since you both are awake," Kelda said, crossing her arms, "maybe now you could tell me why I have two guardians and two seasonal immortals in my home."

Nobody spoke. The only sound that filled the small room was the trickling water coming from the ceiling and down to the floor. Even the smell didn't help warm down the coldness in the air.

"We're here for the sake of the Man in the Moon. He's dying and we're the only ones who can help him."

The Queen of Spring turned towards Pippa questioningly. "The Man in the Moon? Who's he?"

"I'm surprised that a drongo like yourself doesn't even know who chose you to be a spirit." Bunnymund was now sitting upright, his back leaning against the headboard of the bed.

A confused look crossed Kelda's face. "Do you mean the voice that I heard when I woke up?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'woke up'" Jack said, grasping the staff that lay on his bed, "If you mean waking up and finding yourself in a place that you've never seen or remembered before, than yes."

"Alright then. But what's happened? He's never spoken to me in over three hundred years. How am I supposed go and trust you enough to help him?"

"Because, Kelda," Pippa sounded angry, "If you had any sense than you would join us and help. The moon was the one that gave you your powers, and he could easily take them away. Plus, there's a villain on the rise, named Oblivion. Specializes in messing your mind around, and if not stopped will probably mess the whole world up."

This was where the spring spirit seemed as if she was contemplating what Pippa had said. "How powerful is she, exactly?"

If only she didn't have to ask such an impossible question, then maybe she would actually think of joining them.

"Well…" Tooth scratched the back of her feathered head nervously, "…we don't really know."

"Then I'm not going," Kelda made for the bamboo door of the room, attempting to leave, but Bunny's voice stopped her.

"Look mate. I know that you don't trust in us. And you have every reason not to. But you have no excuse for not helping us save the one man that made us who we are today."

He paused, and drew a breath.

"You gotta help us out here. We can't defeat Oblivion without you."

Kelda froze, turned, and smirked at the Easter Bunny. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"You tell me, ya tinny drongo."

It was the strangest thing to see Bunnymund smile like that.

* * *

Convincing Kelda was more difficult than any of them thought, but eventually she came around and the five of them shot out of her underground home, carrying Bunny magically in the air so that he wouldn't have to touch the flowers again. And only as they were out in open and fresh air again did Jack realize that they had just came out of a huge flower, and finally understood the name 'Kelda's Hibiscus.'

Although, before they could leave to find the spirit of fall (Kelda said she would show them the way), Jack had to ask the spring spirit a question.

"Hey!" he shouted, trying to be heard over the wind, "Why'd you call it Kelda's Hibiscus if it's a rose?"

"Because a rose by any other name will still smell as sweet," she said, smiling at her cleverness, "if you read Shakespeare, then you would understand."

And the five flew out into the sky.


	7. Prepare for a Ball

"I still don't get why you have to go to this bloody ball in the first place."

The five immortals were attending a party—the first one that each of them had attended in their lives. It was a grand ball, held on an obscure palace, which topped an enormous orange-leaved tree. This was the home of Leland, the fall spirit, and the ball was held annually to mark the beginning of autumn. "He's always been a little extravagant when it comes to his season," said Kelda as she explained to the others about how they were going to find the spirit of fall.

They all agreed, since the Autumn Dance (as it was called) was the only time that Leland was out and open to the world, where everyone with an invitation can see him.

"Only one problem," said Pippa, "we aren't invited. There's no chance for us to get in, and even if we do, how can we pull him away from the party long enough to talk to him and try to convince him to join us?"

"Jeez, you're always such a negative Nancy, Pippa," Kelda said it with a teasing voice. And out of a small pocket in her dress, she pulled out a brown envelope with a seal of a leaf on it, matching red ink scrawling the words 'To Kelda, the Spirit of Spring. Invitation to the Autumn Dance.'

"How the hell did you get that?" said Jack, leaning against his staff as the other spirits huddled around to get a good look at the letter.

"Leland's a good friend of mine," and Kelda stowed away the letter back into her dress, "he said he'd guarantee me an invitation."

And so the girls started searching for things to wear to the ball, acting like teenage girls choosing gowns for prom, looking at dress after dress in every human store that they passed by. But Bunnymund and Jack had absolutely no idea what to wear, passing awkwardly through racks of what humans called 'suits.'

The spring spirit laughed as the two males held up their choices.

"What's so funny, pooka?" Bunnymund said, irritably.

"No, it's nothing," she said, wiping a falling tear from her eyes.

"Is it the suits?" Jack asked, looking at the smart black suit jacket with care.

"No, actually, they look pretty good," and Kelda stretched out her arms to receive the two suits, "but c'mon. We're not talking about a mortal's kind of dance here. This is a _spirit's _ball for springtime's sake. You'd get laughed at for wearing these." And she stopped looking at the suits to glare at the Bunnymund and Jack. "I can tell that neither of you know what a vestis is, so I'm just gonna spare you the nosebleed: It's male spirit wear."

It was reasonable, but how were both of them going to find outfits on such a short notice? The Autumn Dance was only three days away, and all three girls were ready, with the boys trailing in the dust behind him.

Thankfully Tooth and Pippa had offered to sew them what they needed, stealing fabric, needles, and thread from a nearby crafts store. It took the girls less than two days to finish the 'vestis', as Kelda called it, and Jack couldn't help but notice how well Tooth and Pippa were getting along. They laughed and shared jokes as they worked, the occasional song popping up here and there. The frost spirit couldn't help but smile when he saw them together, their laughter and happiness nothing short of contagious.

"Can you try this on?" said Tooth, handing Jack his robe for the ball; it was indeed a robe, a smart royal blue with silver lining, gold design running along from the collar towards his arms, matching the frost on his hoodie. It trailed the ground ever so slightly and the sleeves opened up into a sort of once over his wrist, just covering his hand.

Jack stared at himself in the full-bodied mirror of the old tailor's shop, the light of the moon reflecting off of his white hair. He had never worn anything this formal before, and it felt as if he was looking at a stranger in the mirror.

"What do you think?" said Tooth, hovering behind Jack and looking at him through the mirror. She smiled at her handy work, and the white-haired frost spirit smirked as well. He had n o idea how to respond, but said, "It looks great! It's just…"

The Tooth Fairy's smile suddenly faded, and she backed away. "You hate it, don't you?"

"No, no!" he looked back at her, "It's great, it's just—I wouldn't love this enough to wear it everyday."

Tooth only looked hurt for s second, but instead smiled, and gave a short laugh. "It's not supposed to be worn everyday! Just one night, and you could say goodbye to this forever."

And Jack smirked, staring back down at the blue vestis. "Although, that would be kind of a shame though. I actually look pretty good in it."

The tooth fairy swatted his shoulder playfully. "Don't get to cocky, Frostbite."

From the other room of the tailor's shop, Kelda and Pippa walked in, carrying a struggling Bunnymund in their arms.

"At least calm down enough for you to see it!"

"No mate. I'm not going _anywhere_ in this!"

"C'mon. We're almost to the mirror. You can take a quick glance and we'll leave you alone until the ball."

Tooth and Jack made way for the two girls dragging the kicking rabbit, and placed his large feet flatly in front of the floor in front of the full-bodied mirror. He finally stopped moving, and Jack could see the rabbit more clearly now. His vestis was just as long and trailing as the winter spirit's, except that it was deep maroon with emerald green lining that matched Bunnymund's eyes. It was simpler than Jack's, but it was more form fitting and had a belt tied around it at the rabbit's waist. The winter spirit thought that maybe the belt was the girl's idea, as to prevent from showing Bunnymund's chest and stomach. Jack's vestis showed of the silver shirt that he wore under and the longer, looser brown pants, which was just fine. But Bunny had _no _clothes under his robe, drawing a laugh out of Jack Frost.

"What's so funny, mate?" The rabbit had his paws over his eyes, as to prevent him from seeing himself in the mirror, "I look awful, don't I?"

"No man," Jack said, "You actually look pretty good."

He couldn't deny it, and the three other girls were happy at the response. But Bunnymund just took his paws away and looked at himself in the mirror. "Why is the fabric shiny?" was the first question that he asked.

"It's called satin, fuzzy," Pippa stared at the rabbit's expression in the mirror, which was unreadable and confused. "So, what do you think?"

"I—" Bunny straightened up, as to get a better look, "It's alright, I guess."

"Oh don't be silly, you look great." And Tooth went over to him, brushing dust off of shoulder. "I'll guarantee you this, however. No matter what you look like, it's gonna be one hell of a night."


	8. The Autumn Dance

On the night of the Autumn Dance, Kelda led them to an enormous oak tree, with leaves already turning orange and red. The trunk stretched up high into the sky and caused the top of the tree to vanish into clouds. But the five of them all knew that on top of the tree was their destination.

"I guess we start climbing," said Kelda, and Bunnymund just laughed, his vestis making him seem less intimidating. "Are you serious, mate?"

"What?" The Queen of Spring acted as if she was offended, her hands on the hips of her flowing green silk dress, "That's how _I _always get in!"

"What," Tooth spoke up, "Why don't you just fly up the tree?"

"Leland puts a spell on it every Autumn Dance, and everyone gets electrocuted if they try and fly up." The spring spirit shrugged. "I have no idea why he does that, but I've been climbing up there ever since I learned about it."

"Well, maybe that's because you ain't never had a pooka like me before." The rabbit walked up to the base of the tree, hopping over roots that stuck out of the ground. Bunny beckoned his head for everyone to follow, and they all flew to meet the grounded rabbit.

"You're gonna wanna hold on tight, mates," a smirk played on his face, and he practically dragged the other four behind him as he ran at lightning speed up the side of the tree. He held on to Kelda, Kelda holding on to Pippa, Pippa holding on to Tooth, and Tooth holding on to Jack, his staff dangling with his arm as they ran up higher and higher. The winter spirit had seen Bunnymund run quickly before, but even with the load of four other people he still climbed up effortlessly and they reached the palace in no time, every single one of them—save for the rabbit—was gasping for air, and took a look around them.

The first thing that Jack noticed was that the palace was shaped like a giant acorn. It sat on top of the humongous tree, seeming as if the acorn would smash the branches beneath it, and yet it stayed still. Lights flared from windows in the giant seed, flashing white or yellow or red. There was soft music playing, as if to signal the start of the Autumn Dance.

The four ran towards the large double doors of the acorn, which were wooden and the same shade of brown as the palace itself. Two large bears stood at the doors, looking as if they'd been forced into the extremely small suits that they were wearing. Jack tried not to laugh, because even though they looked ridiculous, they stared at the incoming five as if they wanted to rip their throats out.

"Invitation?" one of them said, sending all-save for Kelda-into a wave of surprise. The spring spirit pulled the brown envelope out of a back pocket in her dress, and showed it to the bears. They examined it quickly, and then asked, "How are you pairing?"

There was a short silence. "Excuse me mate," said Bunnymund, stepping forward, "What do you mean 'pairing?'

"We're more than two people, Bunny," Kelda placed her arm in front of him to stop him from moving towards the bears, "We can't go in unless we go in pairs."

She turned back to the beasts and said casually, even though it looked as if the bears wanted to eat Bunnymund, "The Easter Bunny and I are pairing off. Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy over there as well," and she pointed behind her towards the latter pair of spirits, and Jack's cheeks turned the slightest bit blue—it was his way of blushing.

"What about the summer spirit?"

Pippa, who was on Kelda's other side, seemed nonchalant when she said, "I'm going in solo."

And so the bears held the doors open for them, and they walked in to a huge, glittering ballroom, the ceiling reaching up over thirty feet over Jack's head. They were on top of a large marble staircase, pillars lining the walls in between tall ornate glass mirrors. On the other side of the ballroom was another set of stairs, but this one was leading to a throne in which a young, teenager sat.

Leland looked nothing like the Leland in the picture that Manny had shown them. Even though he had the same fiery red hair and tall stature, the one in the ballroom was proud, formal, and composed, where as the other looked shabby and—well, normal? The fall spirit was wearing a long trailing vestis as well, a deep burnt sienna and was lined with white fur. Kelda was right about him—he was _very _extravagant.

"Excuse me, sir?"

Jack looked behind him, and saw a young man there. He looked younger than Jack by a few years, his hair sandy and his smile bright. His eyes were a strange shade of blue green, and he wore a vestis that cut short at his ankles. Jack would've thought that he was the son of one of the spirits that had attended, and was surprised to hear him speak as if he was a servant.

"Sir, may you and you date please fall in line? The introduction ceremony is about to start."

The winter spirit just walked casually as the little boy led him and Tooth to the end of a long line, where Pippa, Bunnymund, and Kelda were already lined up. The more that Jack stared at the little boy the more he felt sad for him. He didn't know why, but he just did. Maybe it was the sad, longing look in the boy's eyes.

Jack just couldn't help but pop the question. "Do you work here?"

The sandy-haired boy stared up at the teen, and said, "Yes, I do. But I can see it in your eyes sir. I'm not sad here. Master Leland has been treating me well." And even though he smiled up at Jack, his fleeting eyes betrayed his words.

But before he could ask anymore, the little boy walked off, and trumpets sounded.

All of a sudden Jack's attention was moved from the little boy to the names being called, the line moving forward, and pairs and singles making grand entrances into the Autumn Dance. He was unsure of what to do, but when he saw that Bunnymund had Kelda's arm linked in his, he copied, and held his arm out for Tooth, the violet-eyed spirit taking it casually.

"Pippa Calor, Spirit of Summer, and Seasonal Immortal."

As she was called, Pippa walked forwards and onto the top of the stairs, walking down slowly in her dress, which was her usual color of yellow but the dress was more elegant and formal. He wings showed out of slits in the back of her dress, and the same went for Tooth, because it would be too uncomfortable for either of them to scrunch up their wings.

As she walked down the stairs, the next couple was called.

"Kelda Ver, the Queen of Spring, accompanied by Bunnymund, the Easter Spirit and Guardian of Hope."

All heads turned towards the two as they walked down the marble staircase. Jack could only think of how odd they looked together, a six-foot rabbit and a graceful spring spirit arm and arm. But at the same time there was a sort of charm to it, and of how shameless they walked together.

"Toothiana Dent, Keeper of Teeth and Guardian of Memories, accompanied by Jack Frost, the Winter Spirit and Seasonal Immortal."

And the two of them walked down the stairs, odd looks coming from the crowd of spirits and immortals beneath them. But on they walked, Jack's vestis contrasting to the beautiful sky blue of Tooth's dress. He had never seen her wear anything like it, flowing and hugging her small waist. Her hand felt so warm against the crook of Jack's elbow, but he didn't mind—he loved the difference.

As they joined the line of people that were standing along the walls of the ballroom, more names were being called and everyone was staring at the five of them, Pippa, Jack, and Kelda mostly. The girls didn't understand, but Jack did as he saw that Leland was staring at them as well.

It was because it was the first time that all the seasonal immortals were together in the same room.

When the last pair was called, the fall spirit stood up from his throne, and Jack could see a black wooden dragon attached to his belt, looking exactly like the one in the original picture. And Leland's voice was soft and deep as he said, "I thank you all for coming," he raised his hands in front of him and gestured to the guests all around the ballroom, "I am sure that you all had your dinners before you came here, so we will go immediately to the dance."

He clapped his hands twice, and the soft sound of violins started playing. Couples were pairing off and heading towards the dance floor, men confidently taking their partner by the hand and leading her to the floor.

But Jack and Tooth just stood where they were, thinking that they were going to be wallflowers for the night. Many bachelorettes came by to talk to Jack, but he just stood there, head down, unresponsive.

Of course, Tooth, being the anxious female partner, noticed all the spirits that came up to them.

"A lot of girls are staring at you tonight, Jack," she said it teasingly, nudging her elbow against his arm. Tooth had thought that it would make him laugh, but he just stayed with his drooped. He wasn't amused at all.

"That's all that they do," said the winter spirit, and his eyes turned once again from electric blue to the cold grey of dark clouds. "What's wrong, Jack?" Tooth tried to get a good look at his face, but he turned it away slightly to avoid meeting her eyes.

"Do you ever think about these things?" he said, and as Tooth didn't respond, he continued, "I mean, do you ever think about what life would be like if you didn't have powers."

The tooth fairy stared at him. "I'm sorry, Jack, I still don't understand."

"No, it's fine," he sounded nothing less than miserable, "It's just—I think I would enjoy life more like that. You would have to worry about normal problems, and not one dealing with saving the world. And love, relationships—they'd just be so much easier."

Tooth had never seen this side of Jack Frost before. After twenty years, she had always thought that he was just the mischievous, happy-go-lucky guy that he was, white hair and staff and blue eyes. But now, seeing the emotional Jack…

"The only thing that people do is stare," said Jack, "I don't want people to stare anymore. I want them to actually _see_ me, you know?"

And this was where Tooth new that she felt the exact same way. She knew that she had always wanted someone to fully understand her, to see her for what she really was, not just some sprite that collected teeth.

Involuntarily, she pulled Jack by the hand and took him to the dance floor.

"Wait, woah, what are you—"

"We're dancing tonight, Jack," Tooth said, mischievously pulling the frost spirit towards her, "You need some cheering up and I'm gonna give it."

Unsure and confused, he gave his usual smirk and put his hands on Tooth's waist. She put her arms around his shoulders, and dancing slowly, enjoyed the rest of the night together.


	9. First Sightings

But they all knew that the joy couldn't last.

As the song ended, and Jack painfully pulled his eyes away from Tooth's to look at the throne, he could still feel the ghost of her soft hands around his shoulders. They clapped and Leland stood up, his arms in front of him again.

"My fellow spirits," he said, voice projecting to the ballroom, "I thank you all once again for coming here to the beginning of the third season of the year. Fall is an important time for all of us, because it is the falling of the past to make way for the future."

He turned around, waved his arm in front of him, and an image appeared. It was of the tree in which the palace stood upon, large, with leaves dangling down from branches. The fall spirit raised his arms in front of it, and all of a sudden the leaves on the tree began to shake. They quivered with the wind, and Leland looked as if he was in pain.

And beautifully, after a short amount of time with everyone's hearts racing, the leaves of the tree beneath them began to fall, showering the floating image with reds and oranges.

Calmly, the fall spirit turned back towards the hoard of spirits beneath him, and Jack could see a trickle of sweat run down the teenager's forehead, but he looked proud all the same as he smiled to the ballroom.

"Autumn has officially begun!"

Everyone clapped, cheered, and smiled as the leaves continued to fall, looking as if fire was falling from the sky. They landed soundlessly on the hard, cold ground below, and Jack and Tooth smiled at the image of another season starting…

But the rush of autumn had left just as soon as it came.

A voice suddenly silenced the cheering crowd, sending what used to be the crisp air of autumn into a cold, heartless wind. Spirits all around the ballroom were hushed, and the voice spoke, being female and just as cold as the air that surrounded the party.

"Well done, Leland. But now that all four of you are here, the shenanigans are over."

She seemed to be speaking from all directions. Every window, pillar, and person shook just like the leaves shaking outside. "I've been waiting for this moment for quite a while now, but never have I thought that it would be as fun as this."

Kelda floated up into the air slightly, everyone's eyes flashing towards her. "Show yourself, whoever you are!"

And the voice just chuckled. "Gladly."

A shadow appeared where Leland stood, making the fall spirit walk backwards down the stairs. The shadow spread blue dust around the ballroom and figure materialized out of the ground. But as the woman came to life, a low moan rang about Jack's ears, causing him to fall to the ground holding his painful head to his chest. Out of the corner of his dizzy haze, he could see that Pippa, Kelda, and Leland were also doubling over in pain, but to the other guests the moan only put the in mild shock.

"Oh, there you are," the woman cackled again, and all of a sudden Jack was pulled to the top of the stairs by something invisible, and the three other seasons joined him. They all were struggling against ropes that bound their arms and legs tightly even though they couldn't see anything.

And in front of their eyes, the woman finished materializing, the throne that the fall spirit had once sat on now in pieces.

She was tall, thin, and very intimidating, the steel grey of her robes adding to the cold metallic blue of her eyes. Her hair was jet black and coming out of her hands were blue orbs, lifting her out of the dust that surrounded the ground beneath her. And as she came out of her grand entrance, the wind stopped blowing but the air still froze around them.

She stopped floating and landed softly on the ground, here beady eyes scanning the four seasons in front of her. And Jack noticed that she wasn't pale and grey like Jack had expected. Unlike Pitch, she had soft, rosy cheeks, even if she did look hard and intimidating.

Who knew that Oblivion would actually be beautiful?

Her eyes moved from each of the seasonals' faces, and stared towards the group of guests gathered in terror.

"Greetings, my fellow spirits," and she waved her arms out in front of her, doing the exact same thing that Leland did, "I thank you all for coming here to witness the reuniting of the four seasons,"

As if on cue, Jack turned around and faced the guests, still wriggling like a worm on a hook against his invisible binds. Oblivion went over to Kelda's side, and tapped the shoulders of the seasons as she listed them of chronically.

"Spring," she tapped Kelda and she yelled in pain, eyes scrunching up together, and Oblivion looked sickly amused. She went on, "Summer," Pippa gave out a loud scream, "Fall," Leland's calm stature quickly turned to one of a man that was breaking, and Jack's stomach turned as Oblivion faced him with cold eyes.

"And Winter."

As she tapped his shoulder, it felt as if a dagger was cutting through the place where she had touched him and slicing his body in half, leaving him screaming and almost falling to the ground had it not been for the ropes that were holding him so tightly. But the pain that had shot through him had felt so real that he was surprised to see that he was perfectly fine. Not a drop of blood was spilled.

The memory destroyer began walking along the line of seasons again, every single one of them still reeling from their brief agony.

"I was hoping to see you all again," she said, her voice heavy with fake joy, "You all look so young. But then again, the Man in the Moon _was _looking for young souls anyway."

"Stop it Oblivion!"

The Memory Destroyer's head snapped backward, looking towards the guests. Tooth was the one who had shouted and she was flying in the air in a rage that Jack had never seen before.

"Well, well, well," Oblivion didn't seem to be affected by the uproar at all. In fact, she smirked in amusement. "What do we have here? A guardian?"

She floated into the air and encircled Tooth, who stayed still even though her eyes blew up with anger.

"And what's this? The Guardian of Memories?" Oblivion laughed and stared at Tooth with her cold, hard eyes, and said "The things that I specialize in destroying."

The tooth fairy looked away—probably trying to hide the fact that she was scared for her life.

Oblivion floated down to the ground, Bunnymund catching her eye. "Well, isn't this a joy! Not only do we have the four seasons, but we also have _two _guardians in out midst, ladies and gentlemen!"

"You must be the world's only living brain donor, if you think that this is amusing, mate," The rabbit seemed to be the only brave one in her presence, because everyone only cowered back in fear at the sight of Oblivion.

The memory destroyer seemed to notice his bravery as well.

"I'm glad that your heart is still full of hope, Easter Bunny." she said, and began floating back to the seasons. "You all have probably been wondering who I am exactly. I know that you know that I destroy memories, but you're wondering, _Why is she here? What does she have to do with the man in the moon? _Well, I'll just ease your minds now.

"I used to work with the your beloved Manny, long before any of you were even born as humans. We controlled the world and time itself together, creating and destroying. We reached an age where we wanted to create beings that were more powerful than the mere mortals on earth—spirits, if you will. I was the one who created Pitch Black, the one that you all know as 'The Boogeyman.'"

She looked back at the seasons, all four of them suddenly calm against their tightening bonds. "Horrible nickname, I thought. But I loved Pitch all the same. He was a misunderstood genius, and the Man in the Moon never accepted him, and wanted to destroy him, even though I knew deep in my heart that Many was just jealous that I created a spirit before he did. But he created the guardians anyway, the wonderful Dark Ages into a life full of hope and wonder. And I said these exact words to Manny as he banished me from ever working with him again: 'mark my words. One day, Pitch will return, and if he fails, I will come up and destroy you myself.'"

Jack had never seen such a demented woman ever before in his life. The way she said the words, and the way her eyes quickly turned from being bluish-grey to blood shot, it set him on edge and made him fear her. But was it the way she acted, or was it a natural air that she carried around with her?

"Little did I know that Pitch only had his sights set for the guardians, and not for the Man in the Moon himself. No wonder he failed. But I am back, as promised, and look at the progress I've done all by myself."

She waved her arm in front of her, an image appearing. It was that of the Moon, but the moonlight the came from it flickered, growing dimmer and dimmer with every change. This sent Tooth, Bunnymund, and the four seasons into a silent panic—the Man in the Moon was failing.

"I won't tell you how I did it, but I will say this: After Pitch was sent into darkness, he created the four of you before he banished me. But as his spell sent me off, I decided to mess with the makings of the seasons." Oblivion smirked at them cruelly, "I split myself into four a put the pieces in each of you before I was destroyed."

She floated over to Kelda, and said, "In you, Manny gave you the power of creativity, to bring forth joy into the world. But I put my own version of creativity to the mix: the creativity of making the troubles, harm, and destruction to the world. How else could you think up those whip-vines of yours our those flower grenades?"

Kelda had never looked so guilty before.

Oblivion walked to the right and began to speak to Pippa. "You have my special ability to see the good _and _bad in people, but once you see their flaws your mind is immediately wired to despise everything about them," and she leaned in to whisper into her ear, but it was still heard by the other seasons, "it even worked to make you despise your own brother."

"How dare you, you stupid little—"

"Now, now, Pippa. We wouldn't want to be upsetting the Man in the Moon now, would we?"

Leland was next; a scared expression already plastered onto his face before Oblivion even came up to him. "I gave you the gift of destroying. If you think about it, fall is just a season for things to die to make room for coldness to fill people's hearts."

And this was when she looked at Jack. "Speaking of which…" and she stepped in front of him and stared straight into his eyes, "Jack Frost, I gave you the part of myself that I liked the most. The coldness in my heart. You have inside of you that aching, longing for an easier way out, and soon enough, you will find your comfort in the dark side, no matter how much you enjoy your time with the guardians."

Leaving Jack in a total state of fear, shock, and guilt, Oblivion turned back towards the crowd. "My apologies for keeping you waiting. I haven't even told you why I'm here!"

She would've let out a great guffaw if she hadn't stiffened back so quickly.

"Well, here's your reason."

Suddenly, the nearest window shattered, and the same blue-and-grey sand that Oblivion had appeared out of burst through and grabbed a handful of spirits all at once. The whole ballroom was sent into a panic, more sand breaking through more windows and the breaking chandeliers causing fire and smoke to fill the room. The seasons felt their bonds loosen, but they still felt frozen with fear as Oblivion continued to cause chaos, her back facing them. Bunnymund and Tooth arrived by their side quickly, urging them to run out and try to escape.

"C'mon, guys!" Tooth yelled, trying to get Jack to follow her, "We have to run for it!"

But just as she said the words, the door to the palace was destroyed, being engulfed in flames.

"Excuse me, tooth fairy ma'am?"

The voice belonged to the sandy-haired boy from earlier, his clothes torn from the fire.

"What is it now?" Tooth sounded irritated, but the boy was there for a good reason.

"I know where the six of you can escape!"

He grabbed Jack by the hand and he was willing to go, but Leland spoke up before they could leave. "But—my palace…"

"Master, I'm afraid there's no time!" The little boy held Jack's hand and the others began to follow him out a hidden door in the wall on the left side of the throne. He opened it, and the cold air that blew along with the dust that destroyed the giant acorn greeted the seven of them.

"What do we do now?" asked Jack, his head woozy from the fire. He was just glad he didn't melt.

"Grab a snow globe!" shouted Bunnymund, and out of Kelda's dress she pulled out one of the orbs. "Where do we go?"

Jack stole the ball from her and shook it, yelling "Safety!" and threw it. Without reason, or any idea where they were going, they jumped in, leaving the burning palace behind.


	10. Safety

**A/N: Hey guys! I just want to thank you SO much for the great response that the last chapter got. Apparently adding Oblivion in everyone was a nice touch ;) But I also want to give a shout out to my brother, who helped me a lot with the plot in the story. I know you're reading this bro, and you can thank me later when you're done squealing like a fangirl. **

**This chapter's going to be chiller than the last one, but there'll be some slight romance for you to see, so please enjoy! –Andrea**

The seven of them found themselves in calm, serene forest, tall trees surrounding them and filling their ears with the sound of trees swaying in the wind. The orange-tinged leaves were falling here as well, just like the giant oak that they had just left.

Most of them were relieved to find themselves out of harm's reach, but Leland looked absolutely devastated. I guess he took the biggest hit from the night's previous events.

"Everything…" he mumbled, falling onto his knees, "All of it…everything I have…"

The other six stared at him in pity as he said, "…Gone."

"Leland, you're going to be alright." Kelda floated down and kneeled beside the fall spirit, patting his shoulder gently, "I promise."

Jack could see the tiniest glint of a tear escape the spirit's coffee-brown eyes. But it didn't fall, unlike the leaves that fell of the trees around them. Instead Leland wiped it away, and as if the whole fiasco had never happened, he looked up, turning towards the other around him.

"Who are you?" he said, to no one in particular.

"Well—" Tooth floated forward slightly, "I'm Tooth, and these are Jack, Pippa, and Bunnymund." She pointed to all of them as she listed their names, and Leland stood up. He was about an inch shorter than Jack, but his proud, stout figure compensating.

"Who the hell has the name 'Bunnymund'? I mean, being the Easter Bunny's bad enough, but to have a name like _that… _" He gave an obnoxious, sarcastic laugh, causing the rabbit to step forward in rage.

"Watch your mouth, you bloody show pony," Bunny towered over Leland, but the shorter fall spirit just stared up defiantly.

"What? I'm just saying what we're _all _thinking," Brown eyes pierced green when he said the next sentence, "Easter, is a pathetic holiday."

"Enough, you two," Kelda flew in between them, trying to separate the feud, but they just stared at each other angrily.

"How do you know?" Bunnymund spoke up, voice louder and more aggressive, "fall's just about things dying anyway, and that's all on Oblivion's part."

"BUNNY!"

Tooth had never yelled before, but the rabbit's latest comment set her over the edge. "How dare you two fight right after we were saved! You both should be thankful that you're still breathing, but now you're just throwing insults at each other for no good reason!"

Silence filled the group as the two spirits walked backwards away from each other, Leland stopping beside Pippa and Bunnymund stopping beside Jack. They were still glaring at each other, but it seemed less intimidating now that they were far apart.

They were all snapped back to reality when Tooth turned to the little boy, who had slipped out of their minds so easily even though he was the one who had just saved them.

"What's your name, little boy?"

He hesitantly responded, "It's Tyler. Tyler Trados."

"Hmm," said, Leland, "I've never known your last name before, Tyler."

"You didn't know the names of _all _of your servants, master."

It didn't mean to sound harsh or cruel, but Leland's head drooped anyway, humiliated. He'd thought that the other six would think of him as a terrible master.

"I'm…sorry, Tyler," he said, and the little boy just smiled and said "Don't be."

Even though the other spirits were just standing around, Kelda was already walking about the forest, picking up branches and placing them in the center of the group.

"What are you doing?" Pippa asked, and Kelda responded by scratching two rocks together and aiming for the sticks.

"I'm trying to start a fire," she said, but when the rocks didn't work, she threw them down to the ground defeated. "Damn, I haven't done this in years."

She stood up, and when they asked her where she was going, she said that she was going to go out and get more firewood.

They all stared around the silent bundle of stick, until Leland kneeled to the ground.

"You guys won't tell this to Kelda, would you?"

Before the others could respond, he placed his right hand in front of him, and a red orb began to form in his palm. Once it grew larger than his hand, Leland pushed his arm forward and the red orb landed on the sticks, causing a great bonfire to form.

"How the hell did you do that?" Pippa said in awe, as the other four gawked. The fire didn't even make Jack feel as if he was melting, which was a great relief for everyone.

"It's a part of my abilities," Leland said, holding his right hand close to his chest, "Unlike you, Kelda, and Jack over there, I use hand magic."

"Why don't you want Kelda to know?"

The fall spirit turned to Jack, and answered softly, "Because she'd be jealous."

Bunnymund laughed at Leland's comment. "You've got tickets on yourself, mate!"

"I'm not full of myself, rabbit," Everybody was surprised to see that Leland had understood what Bunnymund said, but his face turned quickly from irritated to sad as he looked on at the fire, "Kelda doesn't have any magic, and that's the _one _thing that she's always wanted. Even when we were human…"

Silence filled the group.

"Don't act surprised. Jack and Pippa knew each other, so why are you so shocked about us? We were great friends, and we'd talk a lot about how we'd want our lives to be like. She always wanted magical powers, which was why she was upset when she turned into a spirit she didn't have any. But I do, and I've never told her—"

Suddenly, Kelda came bursting out of the trees and holding up a large stack of firewood, a surprised look passing her face as she stared at the roaring flame. "How'd you guys _do _that?"

"Um…" Leland stood up, as if pretending that he wasn't the one who started the fire. And since nobody responded, Kelda just shrugged and threw some more wood into the bonfire before sitting on the ground. The others sat down as well, but silence engulfed them once again and nobody was willing to start a new conversation.

"So what do we do now?" said Tooth sadly.

It was a fair question. They had nowhere to go, nowhere to be, no one to trust, and an evil spirit on the loose and looking for them. Not to mention that they were stuck in a random forest, with no food and no chance of surviving.

"I guess…" Bunnymund said, "…We start looking for a place to stay."

"Where?" Leland asked. Obviously the loss of his castle had scared him emotionally.

"Tooth Palace?"

"Jack, that's a resident for fairies that _never _touch the ground," Tooth said, "There isn't any places to stay, either. It's all floating in mid air."

"I think I have a place," said Tyler, "It's this unused cottage down in the British Countryside. I have a friend there, and I think he'll let all of us stay."

"Well, that's a great idea Tyler," said Kelda, "But what if he doesn't?"

"Then we can stay in the Warren," suggested Bunnymund, and the spring spirit's eyes lifted up.

"Really? You'd let us stay there? Jeez, I've always wanted to see the Easter Bunny's Warren."

And Bunnymund's ears fell flat against the back of his head, and Jack hid a snicker behind his hand.

"We'll check out the two places tomorrow." Tooth said, "But for now, we can sleep."

All of the other's followed as Tooth lay her head down gently onto the cold ground, and curled up to go and fall asleep. But Bunny and Jack were still wide-awake as a distant stream of golden sand ran down and onto the heads of the five people around them. It was interesting to see the others' dreams; Tyler dreamt about pastries, Pippa dreamt about a little winged girl flying over the sea, Tooth dreamt about teeth (as usual), and Leland dreamt about a grand dance with leaves falling around the party. Kelda had a very interesting dream…there were two figures in it, one that was obviously supposed to be the spring spirit herself, and the other was a giant, six-foot tall bunny. The rabbit tapped his foot on the ground twice, and they fell in. They landed inside a place that was uncharacterized, but supposedly was Kelda's ideas of the Warren.

"Frostbite?"

Jack turned towards the Easter Bunny, who was staring at Kelda's dream as well. If he had been human, he would've been blushing bright red.

"Is this about what she said earlier?" Jack was referring to the Queen of Spring. Bunnymund nodded, and then said "What do I do, mate? She says she wants to see the Warren—"

"Well then, show her the Warren, dammit!" The winter spirit said it so blatantly, but Bunny just shook his head. "I don't want it to be just for some survival reasons. I mean, I want it to be special…well, special for _her _at least…"

Jack stared at the rabbit, a smirk playing across his face. "You have no idea how obvious it is that you're crushing on her, kangaroo."

"Well, what do I do, mate?"

"Take her to the Warren alone," suggested Jack, "The rest of us will check out Tyler's place, while you bring her there, just the two of you. Let her paint some eggs, or something. And give her a gift, while you're at it."

"But wouldn't that be suspicious?" Bunnymund sat up as Kelda's dream replayed in her mind, "I mean, I think everyone would mind if I would take her alone to look at a place that we're _all _supposed to be looking at!"

But in the glowing sand above the spring spirit's head, Jack could see he rabbit's figure holding Kelda's hand in his paw, bending over slightly to kiss it.

"I don't think _she'll _mind."


	11. Trados Cottage

While Kelda and Bunnymund went to the Warren alone (and yes, the other's did get suspicious), Pippa, Jack, Tooth, Leland, and Tyler headed of to the English countryside. They had put out the fire and changed into their normal clothes, using the vestis to carry any supplies that they might find.

The five of them found themselves facing a large, homey looking inn, squat and made of wood. Although it didn't seem as if they could fit the seven of them in there (especially since Tooth only flew everywhere), but they figured that they should at least try, since any type of place to stay would be great.

A large, hearty man stood in front of the door, wearing tattered clothes and a lopsided bowler hat, which seemed all too small for his large head. He stood taller than all of them, but seemed warmer and soft as he gave Tyler a bone-crushing hug.

"Aw, you little tyke," said the man, a heavy accent drifting with his voice, "I haven't seen you in over a year! How are ya?"

"Can't complain Stelles," Tyler broke away from the hug and face the other four. "This is Stelles, owner of the place. And welcome, one and all, to Trados Cottage."

It looked absolutely _nothing _like a cottage, but Jack couldn't complain. As Stelles let them inside, the frost spirit could see the warmth and coziness that just flooded every inch of the living room. It was bigger than he had thought, but he was sure to stay as far away as possible from the lit fireplace.

"Anyway, Tyler, who're your friends here?"

He began down the line and introduced each of them. "This is Leland, Pippa, Tooth, and Jack. We're here because we need a place to stay—"

"Ah!" Stelles seemed nothing short of pleased, "Some lodgings, ay? I've got just the thing."

He led them to a hall, which had four rooms in it, and Stelles had promised them that they could take up all the rooms that they needed. Even though Tyler was telling him _multiple _times that they would probably only be staying there temporarily, the large giant that was his friend, seemed determined to have them stay there for forever.

But while the others were assembling in the hall for room assignments, Jack could see Tyler talking to Stelles, and he wasn't all jolly or smiles or anything. They whispering, and it seemed obvious that _both _of them were trying as hard as possible to be secretive.

The most suspicious thing about it all was that when Jack asked the little boy about it later, Tyler just stared up at him, innocent blue-green eyes sparkling.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, and just walked towards Tooth to have his roommate assigned.

All the girls were going to be staying together in one room. Leland and the newly secretive Tyler were sharing, and Jack could do nothing but bunk with Bunnymund, sitting in the room alone as he waited for the rabbit to come back from his 'date', as Pippa kept calling it.

_Why can I never stop thinking about Pippa? _He said inside his head. But it was true. Even though she wasn't the 'I'll love you again like a brother and sister should' type of girl, Jack could see that she was warming up to him, no matter how quickly she turned back to being rock solid. Jack thought that he didn't care, but he guessed that you couldn't truly forget someone when you spend your whole day around him or her.

"Jack?"

He realized that his room door was open, and peaking in was the same spirit that he was just thinking about. Pippa walked in, but immediately fell back as the chill hit her. Jack didn't even notice that he was making the room colder. Immediately he stopped and sat up straight on the bed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked stupidly.

"Jeez, I can read your thoughts from the other room," the summer spirit walked into the room and sat on the opposite bed. Jack turned blue slightly, which was his way of blushing. "You—you could?"

She nodded.

"Don't be embarrassed," Pippa said, sounding calmer than Jack had ever heard before, "I understand completely."

"Really?" Jack didn't mean to sound so happy.

"Well—" Pippa scratched the back of her neck, "I came here to straighten the situation out. You and I—we're still brother and sister, right?"

Jack wasn't sure how to answer, but just said, "Yeah, um—I guess we are."

"And, well—I know that you probably don't remember freezing me on the ice anyway, and you probably didn't recall _ever _doing that, so I would just like to say that…I forgive you."

The frost spirit just stared at summer in a mixture of shock and joy. "Really? You do?"

She nodded once again.

Jack was filled with pure happiness. After three hundred years, Jack Frost would finally know what it's like to have a family. To Pippa's surprise, Jack leapt up and run towards her on the other bed, stretched out his arms, and gave her the first hug that he had ever given his sister in his whole life.

But it definitely wasn't a joyous one.

As Jack drew Pippa to his chest, a raw, burning pain shot through the areas of his body that touched her. His arms felt soft and weak, making him pull himself away immediately as he saw his arms begin to melt.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry—"

But Jack just stared at his arms, fear flooding his face. He backed away and landed on his bed, eyes still glued to the water that was slowly dripping from his lanky arms.

"What the hell am I gonna do now?" Jack said, a nervous panic flooding both of them. But as Jack spoke his breath blew towards his right arm, and slowly it started to heal. He blew on his left and it started to heal as well, and from shoulder to wrist his arms were beginning to reform.

"I'm so sorry, Jack," said Pippa, her hands were held to her mouth in her earlier state of shock. But Jack just sat back down and stared at his sister.

"You finally accept me as your brother, and I can't even touch you."

Her brown eyes traveled to meet his blue ones, sorrow filling both of them.

"The sun melts the snow, Jack."


	12. Warren Happenings

In the morning, it was Bunnymund and Kelda who left first, the rabbit tapping his foot and a hole appearing in the ground. They jumped in and slid through a deep, underground tunnel, and Bunny could just feel Kelda's excitement as they rode down the tunnel together hand in hand. He had never given anyone else such a grand invitation like this, but he couldn't just ignore the Queen of Spring, with her dark brown hair and bright multi-colored eyes as they rode through the grass-covered tunnel.

They landed in the Warren in due time, the giant stone eggs turning their heads and smiling at the two arrivals. Kelda's breath was taken away as she stared at the beautiful sight around her. It was obvious that she had _never_ imagined the Warren to be like this, all covered in grass and flowers blooming everywhere. Although they didn't grow as abundantly as Kelda's field, it was such a magical sight when the eggs popped out of the flowers like large seeds.

Even though Bunnymund didn't need the eggs, he had such a great time painting them with Kelda. They ran around tending to the flowers, and they found out that they had more in common than they thought. They both loved Shakespeare (although Kelda was more open about it), their favorite flower was Jasmine, and through thick or thin they were always up for an adventure. In a way you could say that Kelda was the softer, more delicate side of spring, while Bunny was the hard, strong spring spirit.

They went on racing around the Warren, painting eggs and enjoying each other's company. Bunnymund was even feeling gracious enough to let Kelda make a crown of flowers for herself, her eyes turning a bright vivid green, with little specks of blue and violet splashing here and there as she put the ring of flowers over her head. He didn't notice at the time, but Bunny saw that she looked almost _exactly _like how she first appeared in the image that the Man in the Moon had shown them.

If only he had noticed it earlier. Then he would've seen the signs.

As they were racing across the Warren, Kelda flying and Bunnymund making giant leaps along the ground, smiles on their faces. The rabbit had thought of just going easy on Kelda until he saw how fast a flyer she was. The flowers bended in the wind as they passed, and Kelda laughed as she saw that she was passing Bunny.

"You gotta keep up down their, fuzzy!" she yelled tauntingly.

"Aw, you don't wanna race a rabbit, Sheila," The spring spirit didn't understand what he meant by that, but still flew on, the rabbit catching up. They were both nearing the finish line, which was chosen to be the stream in which the eggs floated in to get them colored. Neck and neck, flying and running they were only inches away from each other and they were both determined to win.

But Bunnymund gave a giant leap forward, and hopped over the stream in a glorious triumph. He skidded to a stop and jumped up, yelling in joy.

"Hey, Kelda?" he shouted, all turned around, "did you see—"

But what he saw next sent his spirits—and his heart—down to the ground.

Kelda was kneeling on the ground, head bowed and arms grasping her chest closely. Bunny hopped over the stream again and came by her side, asking over and over again if she was okay. But every time he asked, the Queen of Spring just kneeled silently, the pained expression on her face being hidden by the curtain of wavy brunette locks of hair.

After a minute or so she began to rise, the rabbit's paw still on her shoulder. It was impossible to see her face, and yet, she felt colder than earlier when Bunnymund had held her hand. Instead, she gave of a sort of energy that was harmful, and more intimidating than usual…

Suddenly, the spring spirit leaped into action, Bunny's paw being slapped away and two, very long vines whips being held in her hands. She stared at the rabbit with a cold glare, and the oddly shaped grenades strapped onto her belt only enhanced that feeling.

She lashed her whip at the bunny, making him instinctively hop to the side and away from the threatening vines. But as he missed she only striked harder, lashing around with the rabbit doing nothing but dodging.

"You can't run forever, rabbit!" she yelled, and reached for a grenade on her belt. She threw it, missing Bunnymund by inches, but did enough damage to make the rabbit dizzy and cause his vision to go blurry. He would've fainted if it hadn't been for one of the eggs helping him keep his balance.

"Aw, is the little rodent tired?"

And Kelda threw another grenade, a strong assortment of floral smells filling his nose, but the scent was intoxicating, getting to his head and making him woozy. But before he completely blanked, he ran and hid behind a small hill and hid, sitting on the grassy floor with his legs pulled up to his chest. Questions flooded him like the confusing smell, entering his brain and leaving him dizzy. _Why was she doing this? _He thought, taking short but silent breaths, trying to stay hidden.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are, fuzzy!" She sounded ruthless, and enraged—but Bunnymund couldn't think of any reason on how she was acting this way.

A little to his left, the rabbit could hear the splashing of something thicker than water—sounding exactly like the stream of liquid that they had just used as a finish line. He heard it filling something up, and a short chuckle from the spring spirit.

An explosion came very close to him, purple fumes shooting up from the ashes. What horrified Bunny the most was that the fumes were traveling towards him, revealing his exact location.

But the Queen of Spring was taking her time coming towards him, tauntingly dragging her whips along the ground. Her steps grew louder and louder in the rabbit's large ears, but as he tried to move away slowly his paw stumbled on something on his belt—one of his boomerangs.

That was when he got the crazy idea. He pulled it out, held it close to his chest as his paws were in prayer position. Kelda's footsteps were becoming louder, and he was just wishing that _something _good would happen out of this…

Kelda had finally arrived near the hill, the moment that Bunnymund had been agonizing. But he didn't have any other chance. Sharply, he turned, faced the Queen of Spring in her beautiful multi-colored eyes, and threw the boomerang hard against her chest. It didn't travel back to him like usual, but just landed on the ground near her. She bent over in pain, and Bunnymund could almost see the warmth return to her. He placed his paw on her back, and he watched in horror as a large amount of metallic blue dust fall into her hand and onto the ground below her.

"How…" Kelda muttered, shocked at the sight of their new villain's trademark, "Oblivion…"

"Shh…" said Bunnymund, wrapping his arms around Kelda as she sank to the ground. She was in such a moment of weakness, being as fragile as the flowers that hung lopsided on her head. Delicate tears were falling from her face, and the rabbit pulled her in closer so that he could feel Kelda's breath against his chest.

"I can't believe she did that…I feel awful…"

"It wasn't your fault, mate," he said, stroking the back of her head, "But I promise that it'll never happen again."

Kelda pulled away slightly to stare into his eyes. Hers weren't the usual rainbow of colors. Now they seemed more greenish-grey, but still hauntingly beautiful in the affects of what had just happened. "Really? You do?"

Bunnymund pulled her back into and embrace, never wanting to let go of the subtle scent of roses in the spirit's hair. "Of course I do."


	13. Unveiling Evil

Jack had flown to the Warren to fetch Kelda and Bunnymund, but he was in total shock as he saw the rabbit with his arms around her. She wasn't crying, but fresh tears were still in her eyes. Jack didn't want to intrude, so he made his way to the entrance of the Warren, trying to escape.

"Oy, frostbite!" Bunny called out, and the frost spirit quickly turned to face him. "What do you want now, rabbit?"

"I just want to say that we're probably not staying in the Warren." he jerked his head slightly to the right, and Jack could see that the spring time wonderland was now in ruins, smoke and purple fumes rising up higher and higher into the air. But what surprised Jack the most was that the air didn't smell of smoke, but instead an intoxicating blend of wood nut and roses.

"What's that smell?" he asked, continuing to sniff the air. Kelda responded, escaping Bunny's embrace and facing Jack. "My flower grenades," she said.

"What's with the purple smoke?"

"I added a bit of that liquid into the grenade," she said, pointing her thumb towards the purple stream, "Somehow the fumes exposed Bunny's location."

This was when she turned to the rabbit in question, placing her head against his chest again. "I'm so sorry Bunnymund…"

"Shh…" he said, stroking her hair again, "No need to feel sorry. It wasn't your fault."

"What do you mean?"

The rabbit removed his paw from the back of Kelda's head and held it out to Jack, revealing a small amount of metallic blue sand—Oblivion's signature.

Jack stared at it, and marveled at how small and miniscule it seemed, even though it could evidently destroy the world.

"But, how—"

"We have no idea," said Bunnymund, "But I hit this Sheila with my boomerang, and a whole cluster of these fell out of her chest. At the same time, the evil impulse that she had just—broke."

Understanding suddenly dawned on Jack. "Wait a second—Are you saying that the sand was _inside _her?"

He nodded.

"Well, that's—that's it!" Jack was practically stuttering, running his hands through his hair and understanding everything, "So, so—oh man, this explains everything!"

"Frostbite," said Bunnymund, "if you ain't gonna tell us what the ruddy hell—"

Instinctively, Jack grabbed the rabbit's paw, Bunny holding Kelda's hand. "I'll explain on the way," said the frost spirit, and shooting into the air and straight into the mouth of the tunnel, flying out with the rabbit and the Queen of Spring dragging along behind them, "But first we have to get to Trados Cottage."

* * *

What Jack had found out was how Oblivion's dust had worked. When it entered into Kelda, Bunny had said that it triggered some sort of 'evil impulse' in her. And as to answer Jack's question about the purple fumes, Kelda had said that she mixed the contents of her grenade with the Easter Bunny's 'egg colorant' (as the frost spirit had begun to call it). He had remembered that the sand was from Oblivion, and the act of _creating _a new weapon—didn't Oblivion give Kelda her trait of creating destructive objects?

Jack made a note to himself to make sure that _none _of the seasons touch the metallic blue sand.

It took them a while before they reached the British countryside, even though the wind was carrying them the whole way. But the came back to the small inn just in time to see the rest of the gang in what looked like a living room. They were seated on couches and plush chairs and heat was emanating from a door on the left wall.

"Hey guys," said Jack, "What gives—"

"Frost!"

The door opened, and out came Pippa, the air around them turning warmer and warmer as she looked at him. The summer spirit did _not _look happy.

"Pippa?" he asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, yes there is," she said, walking over to him slowly, and she began to poke his chest hard, which caused more melting pains, "I can't _believe _you got me to believe that you were good! I mean, you're nothing but a selfish, cocky, and irresponsible jerk!"

Jack could feel the middle of his chest slowly falling down, his vision getting blurred. Not only that but his heart was broken, because just a few moments ago Pippa had _finally _accepted him as her brother. Why was she acting like this all of a sudden?

"Ugh, jeez," she said, rolling her eyes, "Remember. I can read your thoughts, stupid. And I'm acting this way because someone ought to put you in your place!"

She reached her hand up in a position to punch him, her fist a bright red. But even though Jack could feel the burning heat from such a close range, it wasn't on fire, unlike what the frost spirit was expecting. It was just red—and glowing.

But just before her fist swung towards his face, Jack grabbed his staff and pressed the curved end against her chest over her heart. She suddenly went still, yelling in pain as drops of metallic-blue dust fell from her chest and onto the red-carpeted floor. Pippa's hand stopped glowing, and Jack could feel the ache in his chest calm down as the heat went away. Even though he could sill feel a small groove over his heart, he was relieved to see the sand falling onto the ground, being as harmless and as innocent as a flower.

Pippa feel over on her knees, facing the ground, expression in a frozen state of shock. Jack had a feeling that this was the exact same way that Kelda looked when _she _was possessed, and when the frost spirit gave Bunnymund a questioning look, the rabbit nodded.

The summer spirit stood up slowly, brown eyes turning from cold to warm again, and faced Jack.

"How the hell did you do that?"

Jack leaned against his staff. "You guys are in for a long explenation."


	14. Spring and Fall

Sunlight had just spread over the countryside as dawn began appearing over the horizon. Five spirits and a little boy were still sound asleep, but one was up and being secretive as he tried to walk out of Trados Cottage.

Leland had listened intently when Jack was explaining what he had discovered, and as soon as the frost spirit had finished fear flooded him. Oblivion was merciless, he knew that—but Leland also realized that she was attacking the seasons in succession…and the fall spirit was going to be next.

He would've done anything to try and avoid it, no matter how inevitable his fate was. Leland thought that maybe he could avoid it, but how? What was there to avoid?

And then the fall spirit realized—Jack had said that the sand triggered the qualities inside of the seasons that were given to them by Oblivion, which was a point proven by the Pippa's actions, and what Bunny had told the others about Kelda. Leland's gift from the memory destroyer was the power to destroy and make room for evil, and he knew just how to avoid that, and to prove that he would never be _anything _like Oblivion…

"It's strange to see you awake _this _early in the morning, Leland."

_Damn, _he thought, and turned around to see the Queen of Spring herself, leaning against the outer wall of Trados Cottage and watching him. Leland was already at the short wooden gate that separated the world from the small inn, but closed it again and faced the on-looking sprit.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question," she said, and Kelda flew up into the air and landed on his right. She placed her warm hand on his shoulder. "Now, are you going to tell me what's wrong or not?"

He sighed, and stared at the spirit beside him. She didn't look that much different from when they were human, even though he only had vague memories of her. She had the same chocolate brown hair, but she seemed more alive and free, her eyes staring at him with blue, purple, pink, and green hues. Somehow Leland knew that they were great friends when they were humans, but just didn't know where the memory of them playing pranks in the fields together came from.

"It's just—Oblivion's coming for us. The seasons. And I'm pretty sure that I'm next."

The spring spirit released her hand from his shoulder and placed it on his arm, "What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know…" Leland walked away and sat in the middle of the grassy front yard, the green strands tickling his knees. He had never felt so simple before, just sitting down barefoot wearing only a t-shirt and jeans. He was so used to being extravagant hat he didn't take into account what life would be like if it was—well, normal.

He felt Kelda float up beside him, obviously not going without a clear explanation. Leland just sighed, and said, "Oblivion gave me the power to destroy. I was just thinking…maybe if I did the opposite, I could prevent her from attacking me."

The spring spirit was silent, probably thinking about what Leland had said. Being the first one to be attacked, she thought that any kind of prevention would be a failure. But she couldn't say that in front of his face, could she?

"Where are you gonna start?" she asked, and Leland stood up, regaining his proud composure.

"Well, I'm actually glad that you're here," he said, brown eyes twinkling, "I need to learn how to create, and what better person to go with me than the Queen of Spring herself?"

Kelda smirked and landed her feet softly on the ground. "Leland Occido, you sure know who to bring on exclusive trips."

The fall spirit smirked, and grabbed something from his belt. It was the black wooden dragon, wings spread and a large hammer-like thing on the end of its tail. Its snout was long and slender, nostrils wide and carved-in fire coming out. It was a beautiful sculpture, but Kelda was shocked to see Leland smashing it to the ground and seeing it fall into a millions pieces.

'Leland!" she screamed, "Why the—"

But she was only left unanswered as the little wooden pieces became larger and larger. They became sharper and more rounded as well, turning from the dull wooden black to metallic and glossy—scales.

Suddenly the black scales came together, forming some sort of giant lizard…with wings.

"How in spring's name did you get that thing?" said Kelda in awe as the dragon finished materializing. It was around eight stories tall, and as it opened its eyes and for some reason Kelda was strongly reminded of topazes-pupil-less and glittering. The dragon's nostrils flared and fire shot out, but it was surprisingly silent for a menacing, winged reptile.

"He's mine," said Leland, walking over and patting one of the creature's forearms, "I don't really know how I got him either. But when I was turned into a spirit I had his statue in my hands, and I only found out that he was a _real _dragon recently."

The Queen of Spring had never seen anything like it. The fact that Leland had this dragon on his belt was just pure insanity. But she didn't argue as the fall spirit climbed on the dragon's back and held out his hand to help Kelda do the same. The beast's back was surprisingly comfortable, and the spring spirit held on to one of the ridges along the dragon's spine.

"Hey, Kelda?"

She looked in front of him to see that Leland had his back turned to see her face-to-face.

"Could you help me name this thing?" said the fall spirit, "I've been trying to give him a name, but I always get stumped."

Kelda thought for a while as name after name kept flashing through her mind. She wanted it to focus on the creature's assets, like his wings, or fire, or glowing topaz eyes…

"Solithus," she said finally, and off they went.

* * *

Neither of them thought that the sight that awaited them would be so terrible.

Leland had planned to go back to his old castle, taking the dragon because that was the only thing that was permitted to fly up the tree. He had wanted to see what had happened to it, and instantly regretted it as the traumatic feeling from the night of the Autumn Dance came back to him. Even though it had happened a few nights ago, the fear showing clearer in his mind making him almost fall off of the thick branch that he and Kelda were standing on.

His beloved acorn palace was now a charred wasteland sitting atop the large oak. What used to be a beautiful hazelnut brown was now black with ashes, and the nutty smell replaced with lingering smoke and dust. Everything in sight was destroyed, and the objects that weren't burnt were still broken in half or into little pieces, which fell in between the tall branches. But what upset Leland the most about his lost home was what happened to his bedroom. When he had lived there, he stocked up the master bedroom with piles and piles of books-books on history, architecture, fiction, and classics—he kept them all in his room and was the only one who knew about the collection, and hid them at the bottom of the tree when the maid came and cleaned once a weak.

But now they were gone. All of it.

Both spirits just stared at what was left of the palace. Half of the palace's floors were destroyed, but the most damage was in the used-to-be dance hall, which was covered in nothing but blackness.

He had so many memories in this palace. He practically lived his whole spirit life in the beloved acorn, no matter how many people thought that having an acorn for a house was a terrible idea, he still stayed there and lived his happy life in that home.

Gone.

Leland couldn't feel himself crying, but he did feel tears fall down onto his cheeks, and the feeling of complete weakness as he poured out the tears like rivers coming out of the brown sharp mountains that were his eyes.

"I'm so sorry," said Kelda, wrapping her arms around Leland like an older sister would. He hugged her back, and his tears fell on her shoulder, but the spring spirit didn't seem to mind, but was a comforting beacon as Leland was in his moment of weakness.

"It's going to be all right Leland," she said, patting his back, "I know it will."

But her last words didn't help the fall spirit at all. In fact, it made him angry, and he pushed back away from her arms with force and stared up at the sky.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME OBLIVION!" he screamed at no one in particular, tears streaming from his eyes as he let out his rage, "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME! I'LL DO _ANYTHING_ TO SEE YOU DESTROYED!"

And he fell to his knees on the branch, Kelda following and pulling him in tighter embrace. She smelled familiar, and that was the moment when Leland was a hundred percent sure that she had hugged him like this before, probably when they were still human. It was never an affectionate hug, like one she would probably give to Bunnymund, but it was still caring enough to make him feel safe and secure, stopping his tears and calming him down with the smell of roses.

"I know how much you hate her, Leland," she said, "But the time for taking care of her is later." And she pulled away from the hug and held him at arms length, brown eyes meeting multi-colored as the Queen of Spring said this to the fall spirit:

"But I'll take care of you first."

Silently, he smiled, and in her eyes he saw an idea form. Leland immediately got up (well, practically shot up), surprise flashing across Kelda's face.

"I know what I have to do," said Leland, and hopped accurately from branch to branch as the spring spirit flew to catch up. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Oblivion gave me the power to destroy, right?" yelled Leland to the flying spirit behind him, "Well, I want to do the exact opposite. I need you to help me create something. Or in this case, _re_create."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The fall spirit stopped and Kelda made an unsteady halt beside him. He looked up, smirked, and said, "I'm going to re-build my palace if it's the last thing I do."


	15. Leland's Acorn

"Any sign of them?"

Jack had returned to Trados Cottage, back from another unsuccessful search. It had been weeks since Leland or Kelda had gone off to who knows where, but after countless searches they couldn't find the two seasons. Everybody had taken their share in trying to find them, but no matter how hard they tried the spirits evaded them…wherever they were.

"No, not yet," he said, and was greeted by the more-currently appearing disappointed face of Tooth. Jack gave her a quick embrace, in a failed attempt to calm her down. But the frost spirit was stressing out as well. Even though he barely knew Leland, it wasn't right that they just disappeared and never returned after two weeks.

"It's gonna be all right, Tooth," he said, and pulled away to stare at her worried, violet eyes.

"I hope so," she said, and turned away to see Bunnymund popping out of a whole in the ground, not finding anything as well. Pippa had flown in right after him, head down and eyes defeated. She landed softly on the ground and her lime green wings were still. When her eyes weren't the same glittering brown, Jack walked over to her and kneeled beside the summer spirit so that his eyes were level with hers.

"Hey," he said, "Are you okay?"

Pippa sighed, and turned to him. "I never really said sorry to you for what happened—you know—the incident."

Jack had half a mind to place his hand on her shoulder, but thought better of it and just leaned against his staff. "It wasn't your fault Pippa."

"Yes, it was," she said, and sparkling tears ran down her cheeks, "I'm sorry Jack."

He had wished that she wasn't so sad. It made the air around them warmer, but he didn't want to complain or seem insensitive. The summer spirit wiped a tear from her face and turned towards the west, where the last of the light was going. Jack turned to face it as well. Pippa seemed to be happier when she faced sunlight.

"The sunset's beautiful today, isn't it?"

The little girl shook her head, eyes growing warmer in the orange light. "How are you so sure that it's the sunset?"

Jack faced his sister, confused and unsure. "What are you talking about?"

"What really defines the end of the day?" she said, obviously not expecting an answer from Jack, "Hell, it could just be dawn right now, and we're just waking up really early."

The frost spirit did nothing but stare at his little sister, whom he had never thought would be so philosophic.

"We're all given our share of sunlight, Jack," she continued, still not facing the said spirit, "But we can decide whether to look at it as sunrise or sunset."

And with that she turned, and walked back into Trados Cottage.

* * *

While Kelda and Leland were away, they had progressed very well in their mission to re-build the acorn. Solithus was surprisingly good at building for a dragon, and fun for little joy rides when the two spirits took breaks. Leland didn't say it out loud, but this was the first time that he had ever done anything like this. He wouldn't plainly say that he'd never worked a day in his life, even though he was sure that it was pretty obvious. But Kelda on the other hand was diligent, resourceful, and creative, even putting new touches to the palace that fall had resided in for so long. Leland was thankful that she was around, but you couldn't expect less from the spirit of creativity.

And at long last, after three weeks they were almost finished with building it. Leland was nothing short of thankful as he realized that he had spent the weeks untouched by Oblivion's sand, all the more reason as to why he thought that his hunch of _not _using the power that the memory destroyer had given him would prevent her from coming.

But hopeful thinking doesn't always lead to peace or calm.

The mistake that the two spirits made was that they didn't get rid of the remains of the palace that used to exist, but instead just kept the rubble and remains of the first acorn littered around the tree. They had thought to just get rid of them once the acorn was finished being renovated, but little did they know that something lurked in the little broken pieces of wood; something dark, sandy, and metallic blue…

One night the two seasons were sleeping, tired from a long day of re-building. They rested on the top branches of the tree, and like snakes, the sand was slowly creeping through the silent night, and if they had eyes they'd be set on their next target: the fall spirit.

Leland turned over, and the stream of sand drilled itself into his back.

He woke up instantly, pain searing through the middle of his spine, and soon the cold, painful feeling entered into his chest and his brain. Leland felt odd and confused, but the feeling immediately went away and was replaced with a strange sort of wanting—a desire to destroy.

He stood up on the branch and whistled, and the dragon flew down from the sky and hovered over the remaining orange tinged leaves. It had a puzzled look on its face, which made it seem less intimidating than it really was. But in all honesty, Solithus was actually an obedient, friendly dragon, and proved to be useful in their project.

But Leland wasn't looking for friendly at the time.

Suddenly a stream of sand hit the dragon as well, and its topaz eyes glittered menacingly. If it were human it would've given a dangerous grin, which would've mirrored the expression on Leland's face. "Solithus," he said, climbing upon the creature's back, "destroy."

The dragon immediately flew for the castle. Swinging its hammer tail, it smashed the top half of the acorn into a million pieces. Leland smiled. The destruction was only beginning.

Hit after hit, the fall spirit commanded Solithus to continue destroying the palace, and the more and more pieces of the acorn fell onto the tree the more Leland grew in his obsession. He had even commanded the dragon to set fire to it, which sent the whole thing into flames. That was when Solithus landed soundlessly on the tree, and Leland marveled at the on-going destruction.

He had never felt so alive before. The flames, the broken palace—he loved the sight of it all. But then again…

All of a sudden Leland was overwhelmed with guilt. The metallic-blue sand had left his body and the fall spirit was now in the weakest state that he has ever been in. Tears streamed down in great rivers on his face as he saw the audacity of what he'd just done. He had just destroyed something that was blossoming so beautifully. The only home that he'd ever had, and the one that he had spent trying to re-build was now gone, the familiar ache coming back and sinking his chest. He hated himself.

He knew how much Kelda would hate him as well.

Flooded with fatigue and sadness, Leland blacked out, an overwhelmed victim of the acts of the memory destroyer.


	16. Oblivion

Jack had never had a nightmare in twenty years. He had thought that the bad dreams had gone away with Pitch, which was why he was terrified as the haunting image of Oblivion appeared in front of him in his mind as he slept. She looked even more intimidating here than the last time that he had seen her, yet still ghastly beautiful as her dark hair swished around her. The memory destroyer's hands were glowing, and soon enough Jack saw the moon appear behind her, but glowing dimly and flickering like candlelight.

"It's over, Jack," said Oblivion, and sending a blue orb back and towards the moon, the light finally vanished, the only thing that Jack could see being the woman in front of him.

She turned back with an evil grin on her face, and spoke in a voice that echoed in his head and made his ears go numb:

_Where time is most confusing_

_Will come an event most amusing_

_Light will fall and dark will rise_

_Destruction in the season's eyes_

_Transform them to their weakest state _

_While comes a revenge held back far too late_

_There is no chance to end the fight_

_Forever a war with the universe's knight_

Suddenly, coils of dust and sand writhed out of her hands and found their way to the frost spirit, pulling him in tight grip, making him feel weaker and weaker, straining against the binds…

"JACK!"

He sat up, awake and alert, as he heard Pippa's screams from outside his bedroom. Bunnymund was awake as well, a boomerang in each hand and a deadly look on his face. Jack grabbed his staff and ran out of the room and into the hall, only to see Pippa in the arms of a strange spirit of a type that he'd never seen before. It was a girl with a ghostly figure and made out of the same metallic-blue sand that had just attacked Jack in his dream. Her hair flew messily around her, eyes pupil-less and white and staring into the frost spirit's eyes coldly. Her fingers were long and clawed and the sanded figure looked nothing short of demonic as it held the sweet and demure summer spirit in its arms.

"Jack, run!" Pippa screamed, but he was far too late. Another metallic-blue spirit attacked, this time aiming for Frost. It grabbed at his arms and held him tightly so that every time he moved his arms against her pain shot through them. The spirit's clawed fingers dug into Jack's shoulders and he screamed with agony. The two captors spoke to each other in what sounded like hissing, and they were off, flying out of Trados Cottage and into the night.

"Where are you taking us?" said Jack, but neither of the spirits responded, hissing and exposing their long sharp teeth. The winter spirit could tell that he was never going to have a coherent conversation with these two, so he just stayed silent and endured the pain as they flew off to who knows where.

* * *

The seasons weren't expecting to be flown off only to float in the middle of nowhere, right above the ocean. But that's where Oblivion's minions had brought them, and Jack saw that Leland and Kelda were there as well, suffering the same captivity as the other two. The sand spirits were assembled in such away that the seasons were lined up chronologically, the Queen of Spring at one end and Jack on the other.

"Let go of me you stupid little—"

"Now now, Kelda," said a voice from behind them, "No need to get testy."

And who must show up in front of them but the Memory Destroyer herself. Oblivion held out her arms, and gestured to the seasons, "Thank you for coming, my children."

"We will _never _be your children."

Oblivion did nothing but laugh at Pippa. "I wasn't talking to you're my dear, oh heavens no. I was talking to my daughters, who have you four conveniently captured as of this moment."

Jack would've turned and looked behind him if he wasn't being held so tightly. "Daughters?"

"Yes, Jack," she said, "I created them before I was banished. Where do you think Manny got the idea for the Sandman's dream sand?"

The only noises that the seasons heard were the flowing waves beneath them and Oblivion's quiet laughter. "But never mind all that," she said, "We have more important things to deal with."

The Memory Destroyer stretched out her hand, and the spirit that held Jack floated forward, so that the frost spirit was right in front of Oblivion. Jack wouldn't admit this, but at that moment, as he looked upon the face of what could've been his doom, he saw the same crystal blue eyes that mirrored his own. Except hers were colder and more malicious.

"Jack Frost," Oblivion said, her voice blowing through him like the wind, "You were the first one to realize my plan, and now you're going to be the last one to suffer from it."

"I'm not afraid of you," he said, but Jack was only sounding braver than he was. In all honesty, he was terrified. And Oblivion seemed to sense it.

"I only _said _suffer," she whispered to the winter spirit, "but if you cooperate then you'll be just fine."

As if to make him feel weaker, she began circling him, and with a snap of her fingers, the sand spirit that held him hostage vanished, releasing his arms minimizing the pain.

"Why'd you do that?" Jack asked, turning to face the Memory Destroyer, "I could fly off anytime now."

Oblivion laughed, and said, "I released you because I know that you won't. You have questions, Jack. Questions that only I can answer."

She stopped in her original place in front of him, and held out her hand as something small and blue materialized in her palm. It was some sort of orb, which glowed against the dark of the night and as Jack looked closer, he saw images floating inside of it. Images of him, smiling, playing pranks, having fun, except he wasn't Jack Frost—the teen that he saw in this little orb was a human.

"These are your memories Jack," said Oblivion, practically flaunting the glowing ball in front of the winter spirit, "I'll give them to you if you join me."

This was it. The moment that he'd been dreading. Oblivion had given him the coldness of her heart, but another part of that sentence flooded back to him from the night of the Autumn Dance:

'And soon enough, you will find comfort in the dark side, no matter how much you enjoy your time with the guardians.'

This was the last part of Oblivion's plan.

"I will _never _join you." Jack stood straighter, and in the Memory Destroyer's presence, he had his first experience of feeling cold.

Oblivion just laughed. "I was hoping you would say that."

With a snap, the other seasons were brought forward, the sand spirits wrapping their arms tightly around the three spirits. They looked like they were in even more pain than ever before, and the tighter they were bound the more deadly Oblivion's minions looked.

"Here's a little bit of leverage," said the Memory destroyer, "If you don't join me, your friends _and _memories will be shattered into oblivion."

The spirit paused, and laughed at her latest comment, and the howling laughter reminded the winter spirit of nails scratching against a chalkboard.

She placed Jack's memories inside a discreet pocket on her robes, and stood up stiffly and began circling Jack again. "Very well," she said, "before you make your decision, I will let you ask three questions. _Only _three. But that should be enough to help you make up your mind."

Jack thought for a moment. He knew that he would never get this chance ever again, so he was choosing what to ask carefully. But then again, strategy was never his strong point.

He lifted his head, and asked, "Where are we?"

Oblivion seemed surprised. "Of all the things that you want to know, _that's _your first question?"

"Just answer already."

The Memory Destroyer smirked. "The prophecy in your dream, Jack. Listen to the first line."

_That's actually relevant? _He thought, but went back to the dream, unsure if Oblivion was just playing with his mind or actually helping him.

_Where time is most confusing._

They were over water…in the middle of nowhere….

"We're over the International Dateline?"

"Very good, Jack," said the woman mockingly, "I have always fancied playing with time."

"Whatever," the frost spirit didn't mind that he was getting testy. "Next question. In what way have you messed up our memories?"

"Well, that's a difficult one," she said, but smirked all the same, "Let's see…Pippa was only despising you when she came down from the moon, Kelda and Leland never really knew each other when they were human—"

"What?" Kelda was shocked, and Oblivion faced her with an evil grin.

"Did you really think that you two were best friends?" she said, "Leland was a prince, and he despised anything below him, and you, my sweet spring spirit, was just a poor commoner, of no value or—"

Before the Memory Destroyer could finish, something colorful shot out of the sky and tackled Oblivion, and out of the blurry haze Jack saw that the humming-bird like creature was Tooth, in a fit of violence that Jack only saw twenty years ago. Hit after hit she attacked Oblivion, but the older spirit only hit back, each of them getting stronger and stronger with each blow. Surprised, the spirits released the seasons, but before vanishing stuck their clawed hands inside their chests, leaving them screaming in pain. Another spirit appeared and did the same to Jack, who felt all kind of power leave him and turn him into a pile of weak bone and flesh.

"Daughters!" Oblivion yelled, "Escape!"

A sudden gust of wind blew the five spirits (including Tooth) off in the opposite direction, the metallic blue sand vanishing but the pain lasting forever. They flew back in a large rush, and landed on the banks of a small little pond, orange leaves littering the ground as the wind vanished and they fell hard in the soil.

* * *

Jack was the first one to wake up from the daze, his head still pounding. He sat up, only to find the Tooth fairy floating above him, hand to her mouth and a gasp just escaping her lips.

"Jack—" she mumbled, "What happened?"

"Tooth, what are you talking about?"

The fairy pointed to the water of the lake, and Jack helplessly crawled over to see his reflection. The least that he was expecting was a big scar running down his arm of his face, but he saw neither, and what caught Jack off guard he saw in his reflection.

His eyes weren't blue. His hair wasn't white. His skin wasn't pale. Not only did Jack feel a strange sensation in his face and chest, but felt a warm comfort in his feet, which came from the shoes that he was wearing, but didn't recall ever putting them on. His skin was rosy as well, but he didn't feel warm or cozy as the shock came to him.

Jack Frost was now human.


	17. In Need of New Ideas

_Transform them to their weakest state._

That line of the prophecy was repeated over and over again inside his head as Jack stared at the alternate version of himself. How could this have happened? He had never even thought that it was _possible _for a spirit to become a human again, but the winter spirit was proven wrong that night.

But how? None of the guardians ever mentioned anything about turning human, and from Tooth's shocked face they didn't know.

And that's when Jack realized:

A growing pain in his chest…Oblivion's minion digging her claws over his heart…

But another image now joined the picture: The spirit flying away with a crystal blue orb in her hands, causing Jack's weakness…

Oblivion had taken his powers.

Kelda woke next, and the Queen of Spring was just as beautiful as a human as she was a spirit. Her brunette hair seemed shorter, and her eyes were now just plain green. Her weapons were gone, and instead of being clad in leaves she wore a simple forest-green dress.

"Where…where am I?" she said, in an obvious haze. Her eyes fell on Jack and they widened. "You—you're human!"

The winter spirit nodded. "I think you better look at your reflection as well."

She did as she was told, and almost fell into the lake with shock. "But—" she began to stutter, "How—why—HOW?"

"I know as much as you do, Kelda," said Jack, and Leland woke up next, the only main difference being his hair, which instead of long and dark red was now short and ginger. His eyes seemed warmer as well, but that didn't cloud the pure shock and fear on his face as he saw the two 'used to be' spirits.

"Leland, don't act like your looking at a couple of monsters, okay?" Kelda had quickly recovered from her panic, "You don't look that good either."

He looked at his reflection in the lake and almost screamed, and at the same time Pippa woke up. Brown hair, same brown eyes and deer-in-the-headlights look—No matter how much he talked with the summer spirit, this was the Pippa that he was familiar with, the one that he had seen so long ago in his memories.

Memories…

Only then did Jack realize that things had started to come back to him. Memories of his past and from when he was human—or at least, before he was Jack Frost. But all of the memories were horrible. They showed Jack what mischief he did back then, but instead of being fun and playful they showed Jack as reckless, uncaring, and selfish.

But the worst memory of all was one that he didn't even know existed. He was floating in the air, and he saw Pippa on the ice, but she was a human, and as terrified as ever. Just as Jack tried to reach out to her, she fell in, the ice cracking under her feet and plunging her into the freezing water.

_Jack thought he was nimble_

_Jack thought he was quick_

_But the ice was not thick_

_He was silly_

_He was dumb_

_Now his body is cold and numb_

_Your sister trusted you_

_Yet you let her drown_

_You little boy, you did just drown._

A haunting voice kept repeating it in his head as he stared in horror at the spot where he just saw his sister drown. He tried his hardest to fight the voice, but even though he knew that the memory was wrong, the mystery voice won against him and was practically sending him into darkness.

"But…I saved her…"

Jack didn't realize that he was talking out loud until he felt two hands grasp his shoulders and shake him vigorously. When he opened his eyes he saw that the hands belonged to Tooth, her violet eyes turning from panicked to calmed as Jack began to wake up out of his trance. When she pulled away, Jack saw that the others were experiencing the same return of memories, and they were all experiencing their version of a horrible event in their minds.

The tooth fairy took turns in waking each of them up, but Jack stumbled over to Pippa, who was almost screaming against whatever memory Oblivion had planted in her mind.

"No…" she said, "It can't be…no, no NO!"

"PIPPA!"

It was Jack's scream that caught her attention, and she opened her eyes, making her look even more vulnerable than ever before.

"Jack—"

The teen pulled his younger sister into an embrace, being the first hug that they had ever shared after becoming spirits. But the sad thing was, they didn't even have their powers at the time. But Jack had never given the brotherly reassurance that she deserved, and only now could he do that.

"I saw—horrible things, Jack…"

"Shhh…" he said, stroking the back of her head, "It's okay."

"I saw…mom…"

Jack would've been frozen at that moment if he were still the winter spirit. Pippa had a memory about their mother? The only memory that Jack had of her was her telling them to be careful before they went ice-skating…

All the same, he hugged her sister, saying repeatedly that she was going to be okay, no matter how much Jack knew that he was wrong.

"Do you realize where we are, Jack?"

The little girl looked up at her brother, who stared around. The whole place seemed familiar, from the lake to the trees around them. And even in the growing sunlight, the way that everything shined seemed homey and close…

"We're in Burgess, aren't we?"

Pippa nodded, and at the same time Tooth floated down and kneeled beside the brother and sister. Bunny had just arrived as well, and was comforting the second pair of teens. Tyler, however, was nowhere in sight.

"I've always wanted to get my memories back," said Pippa, plunging her face in Jack's neck again, "But I didn't think that they'd be anything like this."

_Memories…_Jack didn't know why, but that word made the gears in his head turn, now that they were unclouded by the images that Oblivion had planted in his mind.

_Memories…_

"TOOTH!" He screamed, pulling away from Pippa and facing the hummingbird-like fairy beside him. "Tooth—_you _can give us our memories back!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Can't you see it?" Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes, "_You're _the guardian of memories, aren't you?"

"Well yeah, but I don't see—"

"You can give us the memories hidden in our teeth! The ones you collected before we were spirits!"

The idea had finally reached Tooth as she smiled, laughed a little, and gave Jack an enormous bear hug. "You're a genius, Jack," she said as he wrapped his arms around her. The last time he remembered being hugged like this was twenty years ago, after the defeat of Pitch. IT was such a happy occasion back then, and even though Tooth was warm and comforting the nagging feeling that they were still in danger polluted his mind…

"Excuse me?"

Pippa's voice signaled that they were lingering for too long, and the fairy pulled away from Jack and stared at the little girl with crossed arms.

"Are we going to the Tooth Palace or what?"

A smirk played on Jack's face, which was quickly mirrored by his little sister. "Even as a human you're still being sarcastic. Now come on. We've got some memories to find."


	18. Memories

Jack would have to thank North for the snow globes, since transportation was lacking for the four humans. But soon enough they arrived at the Tooth Palace, the fairies buzzing wildly at the arrival of the gang.

"Girls, I'm gonna need your help," said Tooth, after a swarm of her mini-fairies came in and gave her a quick hug, "I need you to find the teeth of these four." She pointed at the used-to-be seasons, and immediately the sprites flew off searching the pillar-like structures for the cases of teeth. Jack looked around the gang, noticing again the lack of a small, sandy-haired boy with blue-green eyes.

"Where's Tyler?"

The whole palace seemed much more cavernous than it already was when Jack said that. The three other humans seemed to wonder the same thing, but Tooth and Bunnymund were silent as hell.

"He's a bloody traitor," said the rabbit, sending Jack into complete shock.

"What? How?"

"Haven't you ever noticed how suss he was?" Bunny walked closer to Jack, "I saw him chattin with one of the sand spirits. Apparently, he was the drongo that told them that Kelda and I were headed to the Warren, so that they could send the sand after us! And Stelles was in on it to! Why do you think staying at the cottage didn't cost a zack? Because it was a trap! We were stayin' at Trados Cottage so that Oblivion's minions would get us easier!"

Silence filled the group, the four humans completely clueless, but now despising the little boy. But Jack still saw a hint of the helpless little boy that saved them from the fire of Leland's palace…

A twittering to their left and they saw that the mini fairies were back, struggling to keep four teeth cases in the air.

"Thank you, girls," said Tooth, taking all four. Each had a picture of the one of the humans, and the four took the boxes in excitement. "I just don't know how this is going to work, Jack. What do plan on doing with these anyway?"

Tooth had a point, but and the brunette teen responded quickly, "The memories That Oblivion gave us were probably fake ones. _These _will tell us the truth, and maybe counter the ones that she gave us. And since those memories are the ones that came back to us when we're _human, _these might be able to turn us back into spirits!"

Tooth stared at Jack as if she had no idea what on earth he had just said. "But Jack, the spell that Oblivion cast on you is more powerful than _anything _I've ever seen before! Do you really think a couple of teeth—"

Her sentence was cut of when Jack placed his hand against the side of her face, willing her beautiful violet eyes to meet his brown ones. "Tooth," he said, in a quiet and calm voice. He was pretty sure that the others around were staring at them. "You don't know what you're saying. You're more powerful than you think, you know. And we should at least give it a try, or else we'll be human forever."

A pink tinge flushed over Tooth's face.

"Now, let's look at some memories, shall we?"

Jack released Tooth's face and stared over to Kelda, who had her teeth ready in her hand. "Is there anyway to show the memories publicly?" she asked, and Tooth took the case from her hand, tweaked it a little by using a bit of magic, and handed it back to the teen.

"Don't react too much to what you see," said Tooth, and the case was opened, a large portal-like thing appearing in front of them, images flashing inside. When the picture finally steadied, they saw Kelda, looking like a younger version of the human that stood in front of them now. They saw her sneaking into a forest, several animals crawling up to her and the dark haired teen reaching out and greeting them lovingly. A rabbit hopped up onto her shoulder, and she gave it a little scratch behind the ear. But the image quickly changed to Kelda debating with a man much sitting at a desk, inside what would've been a dark-ages version of an office.

"I'm sorry my dear," said the man, "But there is no chance of you stopping this project!"

"So, you greedy jerk," Kelda crossed her arms angrily, "You're willing to burn down a whole forest _just _to dig for oil?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing." The taller man had an air of financial superiority to him, the clothes that he had on seeming expensive for the dark ages.

"Yes, it IS a bad thing!" Kelda pressed hands against the man's desk, "There are creatures that live in this forest, and if you take that away from them—"

"Look, I have absolutely _no _care for some stinking forest animals at all!" The man stood up and walked in front of the teen, "Now, are you going to leave or what?"

The image shifted to Kelda running through thick trees, the animals following her. "C'mon, guys!" she yelled as creatures big and small followed her to some sort of tunnel, deep and dark and going on forever. She turned back to the animals, and said "This leads to the forest on the south side of the town. You can stay there."

Without warning, a stampede of animals stormed through the opening of the tunnel and ran, crawled, and hopped down through it. Even the large bear was big enough to fit, and Kelda turned back, only to find that the men carrying torches were coming closer, the orange glow growing stronger and stronger.

Kelda felt a tugging at the hem of her dress, and saw that it was the rabbit, and if it had emotions it would be looking devastated and sad. But it ran down the tunnel anyway, and the teenager could only be thankful that each and every one of them was able to make it down the tunnel.

And then she felt the fire surround her, engulf her, and kill her. But the light of the moon shined in her eyes, and soon enough, the brunette turned into the beautiful spring spirit that was Kelda Ver.

The memories stopped playing, and they stared at the green-eyed girl. But she didn't have green eyes anymore. They were the same, multi-colored madness that they were before, but what surprised the others was that she wasn't a full spirit yet. It was only her eyes that were different.

"Kelda?"

Bunny stepped forward, every one else following in suit. The girl just stood there, however, paralyzed and immobile.

"I feel…" she said it in a voice like a whisper, "weird…"

"Does that means it's working?"

As Jack asked the question, they all turned to Tooth, who seemed to be in a mixed state of shock and joy. But she just swallowed as she answered his question, plunging cheer into their hearts.

"Yes," she said, "It is."


	19. Pasts and Presents

It was Pippa's turn to view her memories. Tooth was pretty nervous, because the little girl's past was a pure mystery to her. She believed Pippa when she told the tooth fairy about saving the little boy, but that might as well be able to have been a false memory that Oblivion had planted in her mind.

But the moment of truth arrived when the small brunette opened the case of her teeth.

And it was _nothing _like Tooth had expected.

The first memory was a happy one, but it didn't seem happy as Pippa crouched behind a bush, the look of questioning splashing across her face. "Are you sure about this, Jack?"

She turned to her left, and there was her beloved older brother, smirking at their new target on the other side of the bushes. "C'mon," he said, with his usual husky voice, "we've been doing this for weeks and only _now _you're thinking of turning back?"

Pippa stayed silent, and Jack just pressed on. "I mean, if you're chicken, then—"

"Chicken?" Pippa's voice sounded mildly irritated, "I'm no chicken, Jack!"

The teenager smirked, and ruffled the hair of his younger sister. "Well, prove it then."

The little girl huffed, but stood up anyway. Jack had been eyeing the school bully as their new target for pranking, and as Pippa began to walk closer to the tree in which their prank was set up, the more the little girl felt nervous as to what might happen after all of this. But she just sucked up her fear, her steps towards the tree being fueled by the fact that her brother was watching her execute the biggest prank that they have ever thought up.

Slowly she climbed the willow, and on a low hanging branch was a wooden pail of honey. It was thick, golden, sticky, and luckily, just above the bully's head. And without a second thought, she grabbed the pail, and tipped it over, spilling the syrup directly over the bully's ugly black hair. The girl screamed, obviously not expecting the cold touch of honey to spill on her face, but Pippa wasn't done yet. From a pocket of her dress she grabbed a small back, opened it, and tipped the contents on the bully's head, which turned out to be coarse breadcrumbs.

"Now, Jack!"

At the signal, her brother gave out a loud bird call, and a swarm of pigeons came out from the tree and saw their next feast: the breadcrumbs on the girl's head.

She screamed once again as a flurry of grey birds attacked her, and as an added bonus some of the feathers actually stuck to the dripping honey on the bully's face. Everyone around laughed as they saw her get attacked, but no one was more pleased with the results than Pippa and Jack.

The happy memory faded, turning into a quick flashback of Jack falling into the lake, and the devastated look on the little girl's face. But that memory didn't last long, and was replaced by a bickering man and woman, who Jack recognized to be none other than their parents. The man was tall, thickset, with a scraggly beard and thick coffee-brown hair. His eyes were green, his face squared and his features large. The woman, on the other hand, was smaller in comparison. Her brown hair was dark and her eyes were almost a golden brown. Her face was rounded off, but even though she looked soft and delicate she still had the air of staying strong around her.

But it was horrifying to Jack as he saw his parents fighting, and little Pippa alone to watch the horror. He had a feeling that this happened after Jack died, but he couldn't hear exactly what they were fighting about. All he knew was that the fight didn't end well.

If you consider Pippa and her mother being kicked out of their home not ending well.

Their mother was weak, and the next few memories showed Pippa and their mom living in the woods, deprived of food and of shelter. It was the little girl's turn to care for her, and one of the memories had a very intimate and sweet chat between mother and daughter, where they were standing on the frozen-over lake and staring at the setting sun.

"I love the sunset, mom," said Pippa, and the woman just smiled, and said, "how are you so sure that it's the sunset?"

Jack was surprised at what their mother had said next, which was the exact same thing that Pippa had told him. "We're all given our share of sunlight. But we can decide whether to look at it as sunrise or sunset."

Pippa stared at her mother, who had heavy bags growing under her eyes. But the little girl didn't mind. Age was a beauty to her.

Suddenly, the ice under her mother's feet began to crack. Pippa saw the look on her face as she was absolutely terrified as the cracks grew bigger and bigger.

"Pippa," her mother said, "go on without me."

"But mom, I can't—"

"GO!"

But just before the woman fell in, Pippa grabbed her mother's hand, pulled her out of the way, and she found herself over the cracking ice. But before she fell in, however, Pippa saw the terrified look on her mother's face, tears almost streaking her face.

But then the ice cracked.

The memory was over and they turned to real-life Pippa, who was just as shocked with her past as everyone else was. But there was a plus side. She and Kelda were both looking more spirit-like; the helmet of leaves returning to the older girl and streaks of blonde clashing with the dark coffee brown of Pippa's hair.

"So," Leland said, "when we see our memories, we turn more and more into spirits?"

"You'd have to be a right idiot not to figure that out."

"Quit your yapping, doc," responded Leland, handing out a new nickname to the already full list (some of the classic Bunnymund names were fuzzy, cotton-tail, kangaroo, kanga_rabbit, _and fluffy face). But some of them only giggled as Leland held the case closer to his face, opened it, and another swirl of images appeared in front of them.

Oblivion wasn't kidding when she said that Leland used to be a prince. The palace that was portrayed in his memories was nothing short of extravagant, pillars of marble adorning a giant hall. It was strangely similar to the ballroom that was used for the Autumn Dance, except for the red banners hanging from the ceiling and almost reaching the floor. Leland was sitting on some sort of throne, and a man who could only be identified as his father was sitting on his left. A man who was dressed in poor clothing was kneeling in front of the thrones, saying words that were piercingly sharp in everyone's ears.

"Your majesty," he said, lifting his head and revealing himself to be an old man, "I beg of you to except me from paying tax this month. My flock—"

"I care nothing about some bundle of sheep," the king said this with harshness that could not be compared by anything, "That tax was due yesterday, and if you can't pay, then you should be taken out of this kingdom!"

Guards stormed into the hall and took the old man away, and the others watched in horror at the sight of the man wriggling against the arms guards.

"That is how a king should rule, son," the king addressed his son, but Leland barely listened, only focusing on the pained look on the old man's face.

A new image replaced the old one, this one of Leland walking through a forest. It was a calm walk, until he heard a huge roar over his head. He looked up terrified, and followed a large black dragon fall out of the sky and onto the clearing in front of him. Leland stared at it, and as the creature opened its beady yellow eyes the teen could've had a heart attack. But it didn't do anything. Leland's father had always told him to fear strange beings and creatures, but the dragon had certain warmth to it. The dragon huffed, and let down its wing. Strapped onto its back were piles of food, money, and clothing, which seemed to be made out of the finest silk and fabric that he had ever seen in his life. Leland would've asked the dragon why it had all of this, but one look in those topaz eyes and Leland knew that they had the same idea.

The prince was going to do some good for once.

He hopped onto the dragon's back and flew off into the sky, dropping the goodies from the back of the black-scaled dragon. The bewildered yet joyful faces of the crowd below him were the only things that lifted his spirits as he flew past home after home leaving behind the goods on the dragon's back. And when all the food, money, and clothing were given to all in need, Leland flew the dragon up higher and shouted out with joy.

But it didn't last.

Soon enough, the dragon got out of control. The ride got bumpy, and when Leland couldn't control it anymore, the dragon flipped over, and the teenaged prince was falling from hundreds of feet in the air onto solid ground.

The memory faded, and the three who had already viewed their teeth were slowly becoming more and more like the seasons that they were before. Half of Kelda's dress was made out of leaves again, and one oh her whips had returned. Pippa's wings were slowly growing back, while Leland's hair turned a deeper shade of red, but the wooden dragon had not come back yet.

Jack was streaming with excitement as he opened the case for his teeth, memories of pranks and games and hopscotch being displayed in front of him. But when the memory of his drowning in the ice finally ended, Jack didn't feel himself turn any more spirit like. When he got out of the trance, he still felt warm and his skin was still pink. The other spirits were still stuck in their half spirit-half human phase.

"What—what's going on?" Jack didn't know why they weren't all seasons again, but Tooth gave a quick, yet miserable answer.

"It didn't work because you already saw your memories, Jack," the tooth fairy floated over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "you already knew about your true memories, so the ones in your teeth couldn't counter the false memories that Oblivion had given you."

Jack just stood there, in a potent mix of fear, anger, and devastation. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to _do _either. He was just so full of hatred for the Memory Destroyer that all he did was take one of the snow globes from Bunnymund, shout 'Burgess' into the newly made portal, and was gone.

* * *

He chose Burgess because that was where he died. Jack thought, _what better way for me to wallow in misery than in the place that holds the most memories for me?_

Memories. He was starting to get sick of that word. All the confusion, the playing around with your mind, it all made him wish that these things had never happened to him, that maybe he never could've turned into Jack Frost…

"Jack?"

It was Tooth.

"Aren't you supposed to be entertaining the others?"

He felt the tooth fairy's delicate hand rest on his shoulder, and he turned around to face her violet eyes.

"Jack, I've never seen you like this before," she said, voice soft and mesmerizing, "We'll find a way to turn you back into a spirit. Even if it's the last thing I do."

He gave a broken smile as his head just drooped down more. "Half the time, I wish I'd never gotten into this in the first place. I wish I was never a spirit, and just lived a normal, mortal life."

Tooth was silent at Jack's last comment, but still persisted on trying to make him smile.

Was that really what she was here for? Or was his smile just that beautiful that she wanted to see it everyday?

"If you were never Jack Frost, then you would never have met the guardians."

"I'd rather a human nobody that isn't noticed or seen than a spirit that has to go through all of this."

Tooth placed her hands on either side of his face, staring into Jack's brown eyes, which were so foreign and warm. To be honest, she preferred the electric blue of Jack Frost's eyes than the brown of his human ones. But no matter. With her hands on his cheeks, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

It was soft, warm, and comforting, Jack obviously surprised by Tooth's sudden action. But only then did he realize that he had been waiting to do this for twenty years, placing his hands on her waist and wishing for it to never end. Tooth had actually echoed his feelings and they were sharing the truth for the first time, but definitely not the last.

The fairy pulled back far enough for their breaths to still mingle, and what she said next almost struck tears into the eyes of the brunette.

"_I _can see you, Jack."

And Tooth could swear that she saw a flash of blue clashing with the brown in his eyes.

Something up ahead caught their attention, and they let go of each other and turned towards the direction of the noise. It was the sound of rustling branches, and out of the woods someone appeared—a man.

He was taller than Jack, with a green jacket on, which was appropriate because fall was nearing its end and winter was coming. He was also wearing large boots, and jeans that reached just above his ankle. His chin was rounded, eyes and hair the same shade of golden brown…

Jack had never thought that he'd see Jamie ever again.

At just the sight of him all grown up, seeing the first one that believed in Jack—it made him feel colder, but in a good way. He looked down and saw his shoes vanishing, and the blue hoodie recovering its frost. He looked into the lake and saw that his hair was white and his eyes were blue again, and the reborn frost spirit would've jumped up and down if he didn't have questions for Tooth.

"It's—" she stuttered, "it's remarkable—nothing short of amazing…"

"What?" Jack couldn't take the suspense.

"Seeing Jamie again," she continued, using up the time before the grown man would probably notice them, "For you, it represents everything that the guardians stand for. Wonder, hope, dreams, memories—that's more powerful than any evil spell that Oblivion can cast on you."

"Jack?"

The two spirits stopped talking and turned towards Jamie. The winter spirit walked over to him, and Jamie only looked more surprised "Is that really you, Jack?"

"Jamie," The frost spirit was only inches away from the man now, enjoying the fact that _he _had to look up at Jamie now, "you—you can see me?"

The man nodded, and tears streamed down from Jack's eyes as he tiptoed to give Jamie a huge embrace.

After twenty years…

"I can't believe you still believe in me."


	20. The Last of the Moonlight

Jack had no idea how much Jamie had grown up. The nine-year-old boy that the winter spirit knew before was now married, and on his way to having his second child. He had taken up a job as an illustrator, (no surprise for Jack) and wrote children's stories with his wife Sarah. Jamie had told his son Cory everything there was to know about the guardians, and soon enough North's globe had gained one more light. But no light could compare to the joy that Jamie had as he saw Jack.

But sadly, it was time for him to leave. Jack couldn't believe that he'd spent the whole afternoon with him. Or was it the afternoon? They viewed the memories in the morning, but time flew by so fast when he was with Jamie that he wasn't sure. He was just happy that he saw his believer again and devastated that he had to go.

"If you're here in Burgess again, you know where to find me."

Jack laughed as Jamie waved goodbye once more before heading into the thick trees that surrounded the lake.

As if on cue, a portal opened up just behind Tooth and Jack, and out came the rest of the gang, the three other seasons now fully energized and their powers restored. Jack walked over to Pippa and almost gave her a hug, but then stared at her newly grown wings and blonde hair.

_Right, _he thought, slowly backing away as if nothing happened, _she's the summer spirit. I can't do that anymore._

"Oi, mates."

Bunny's voice caught their attention and everyone turned towards the six-foot rabbit, with his face grim and his eyes serious.

"Our problems gotten bigger, in case you didn't notice."

He pointed towards the sky, where the night sky was fresh and inky black…too black. They looked towards the moon.

Or at least, what was left of it.

What once used to be large and bright was now glowing dimmer than ever before. Jack had only noticed then how different the night sky looked, and the horror that he felt when the light just kept growing softer and softer.

_Well, Jack. It seems as if you were the one that figured out the flaw in my plan. For that, I congratulate you._

Jack doubled over in pain and shielded his earsas the voice of the Memory Destroyer rang and pierced through his head. Through his blurred vision he saw that the other seasons were in pain as well, but Oblivion just continued to speak.

_But the game is over. And I'm afraid that you have lost._

_What do you think life would be like without the moon, Jack?_

And just at that moment, the moon finally vanished; light being sucked out and the world being plunged into darkness.

* * *

Jack felt weak. Weaker than he ever had felt before. Maybe it was the darkness. Maybe it was the feeling in his chest like a stone was dragging him down to the ground. Or maybe it was the fact that the spirit that had turned him into an immortal was now gone and sending the world into what might be a later chaos…

Yeah. Probably the latter.

In a dizzy haze, the six of them looked up at the sky. Where the moon once shone over the world something was being formed, rays of light shooting out from it and traveling to different parts of the world. Jack was strongly reminded of Sandy's dream sand, flying through the sky like rays of hope and wonder. But this light was white, making it seem as if ghosts were flying through the night. But haunting light was better than no light.

As soon as the world was fairly lit, a figure started falling from the sky, the source of the moonlight falling with it. The figure was that of a person, falling down to earth like a lifeless doll.

"Solithus!" Leland screamed, and out of nowhere a dragon appeared, and to Jack's surprise it looked like wooden statue hung around that usually hung around the fall spirit's belt. Save for the bright topaz eyes, which were little pinpricks of light against the dark sky. And with one swift motion, the dragon flew out and caught the man on its back, and was slowly flying back to the gang.

"Well, Leland," said Kelda, "Even though Solithus has some tricks up his sleeve, I still won't forgive him for destroying the castle."

"Castle?" Jack would've gotten a response if it weren't for the dragon swooping in and landing soundlessly on the cold autumn ground, creating a wind that made the trees shake. Solithus dropped his wing slightly to reveal the person on his back. All of the spirits drew closer, and without a second look to his face they knew who this man was.

He was the last source of moonlight.

Manny.

Jack was nothing short of surprised at the sight in front of him. He had never imagined the Man in the Moon to be an _actual _human, and seeing him on the dragon's back just made him seem so…fragile. His face was thin and pointed, his hair as long as Leland's but as white as Jack's. He wore a simple white robe lined with silver and blue, and surprisingly his feet were bare.

The man woke up, revealing his bluish silver irises, looking the exact same shade as Oblivion's.

He stared at the spirits around him, and simple sighed, standing up stiffly off of the dragon's back.

"I'm on Earth, aren't I?"

Nods all around.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been updating as much...Writer's block. But I just want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR! And I also want to tell you guys that we have reached chapter 20 and we're getting closer and closer to the end…o.O Shout out to my beautiful friend Leni (and sorry for not updating sooner shimmer-snowflake), and I hope that you guys enjoy the rest of the story! -Andrea**


	21. Chatting with the Moon

Jack wasn't thinking that it would be so awkward with the creator of everything was standing right in front of them. But the way his eyes scanned at the immortals made it seem as if he was judging them, and the winter spirit could see the insecure look in their eyes as Manny stared at them. But the more that Jack looked at the Man in the Moon, the more surprised he is that he looks the way that he did.

"Um, excuse me?"

Everyone stared at Jack, but it was only Manny that seemed amused. "Yes, Jack Frost?"

"It's just—" Jack ran his fingers through his hair nervously, "I wasn't expecting you to be like this."

To his surprise, Manny actually snickered. "I was expecting you to say that," he responded, a smirk dancing on his lips, "I'm probably only like this because I'm out of my element…strictly speaking."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, I'm in a weak state. I'm out of the moon. I have no home. Barely any power." He quickly turned from his regal state into being fragile, snapping his gaze away from Jack.

"You were probably kicked out by Ms. Mind-Control herself," Pippa stepped forward, crossing her arms.

"If by that you mean Oblivion, then yes," Manny looked towards the summer spirit, "How'd you guess?"

Pippa lifted her arm and pointed to the sky. A new orb was now in the sky, but hardly glowing brighter than embers. Streams of sand were shooting around it and only one detail struck out to them.

The orb in the sky was metallic blue.

"I think it's pretty obvious."

Manny stared at Pippa again, and shot her what would've been a death look. "Your sarcasm reminds me of Oblivion."

Jack had never seen the summer spirit so frozen before.

"Well then," said the white spirit, "I have to ask you all to help me. I need a way to get back to the moon, and—"

"Why?"

They all stared at Jack. Even though he was the winter spirit, they had never seen him look so cold.

"Why should we help you? I mean, _you _were the one who took away our human lives, and turned us into what we are now, aren't you?"

"To think, I was actually _enjoying _being a spirit! But no! You are a selfish, greedy man, who doesn't deserve your powers! I just wanted a normal, human life, and you've stolen it! Not only that, but I wasn't believed in for 300 YEARS! Nobody gave a damn about me until you told these four about how I needed to help save a bunch of kids!"

"Jack, what're you—"

"Save it Tooth," he said, eyes darting menacingly towards the fairy, "This is between me and the moon."

He turned back to Manny, feeling nothing but hatred and anger. Why did he turn him into Jack Frost, anyway? Why couldn't he have just picked some other teen that would share this burden? He never wanted his powers, and would wish that they would go away.

Although, they were good for something.

Jack lifted his staff, aiming it at Manny's heart and planning to freeze the white spirit.

Before the curved edge of the wood could touch him however, a stream of water from the lake shot out and snapped the staff out of Jack's hands. He almost went crazy trying to find it again, but the stream cut like a blade and sliced through something behind Jack.

What he didn't see was the path of blue sand leaving him.

Suddenly the feeling of anger and hatred left him, but that didn't make the winter spirit any better. He felt weak again, but was quickly surprised as he saw Pippa dragging her outstretched arm down and the stream of water following her move.

Jack's eyes met hers, and his breathing became heavy. "How did you…?"

"I—I don't know." Pippa was just as surprised as everyone else was. But out of her chest came a blinding light, and everyone could see Manny drawing something from her heart. When it had escaped it flew over to the white spirit's hand, looking like nothing except a ball of light.

"What is that?" said the summer spirit, surprised that that light was just inside her chest.

"This, my dear," said Manny, "Is Unda. Your star."

"Star?" the six spirits said in unison, and the moon simply nodded in their surprise.

"When I found out that Oblivion had out bits of herself in you four, I noticed that some of the powers that I gave you were blocked out by the pieces of her that were inside of you. So I gave each of you stars, so that maybe one day, when you really needed it, the powers that were blocked off could come back to you."

Everyone was in a silent shock as they stared at the star, which was bright and beautiful against the darkness of the world. But it was the four seasons that had received the most surprise from this one discovery.

"So, you're saying that I had powers over water this whole time?" Pippa said, and Manny did nothing but nod.

"WHAT THE FLIPPING HELL, MANNY," she screamed, running her fingers through her hair frantically, "ALL THE TIME THAT I WAS WITH YOU, YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ABOUT THE STARS?"

"Settle down, my dear," said Manny, and Pippa reluctantly stood still, "I only planned on telling you about the stars when you were going to need them the most."

"What does that mean?" said the spring spirit, asking the question that everyone had in his or her minds. But Manny didn't respond immediately. He just sighed, threw his hand up and sent the star flying off back into the sky. With his other hand he waved it out in front of him, an image appearing before the spirits. But it wasn't a moving motion picture like what Oblivion creates when she did this, just the image of the Memory Destroyer. But what scared Jack the most were the words that were emanating from the image. They were the words of the prophecy that Jack had heard in his dream, but the image was only echoing the last two lines:

_There is no chance to end the fight_

_Forever a war with the universe's knight_

The sound vanished instantly, but the words echoed in Jack's head and left him speechless. Why would Manny have to show them this?

But the winter spirit thought, and something occurred to him as he stared at the spirit that used to dwell in the moon.

"You're the universe's knight, aren't you?"

Manny looked back, and Jack was a hundred percent sure that he was correct.

But he was surprised when he saw Manny shake his head.

"No, I am not."

'Well, if you aren't," said Pippa, just as confused as Jack, "then, who is?"

There was absolutely no sound or noise coming from the spirits at this moment. Even the wind seemed to have stopped howling and all of the concentration was focused on Manny.

The spirit sighed, and then said softly, "Have you ever heard of Cael's altar?"

Nobody responded, and Jack could see that none of them knew what Manny was talking about either. The moon sighed again, and began to tell the tale that would probably change their lives.

"Before the birth of any of the seasons _or _guardians, there was a tale that fluttered around the humans. It was that of a spirit who used to haunt the Earth and create everything, and controlled the way the tide shifted and how the wind blew. They said that he was the son of the universe, which was why he was named Cael. They said that if good and evil were combined, then this mystical being would come up out of a giant marble altar and bring peace into the world."

"What do you mean, 'good and evil combined'?" said Pippa, and Manny stared at all of them expressionlessly.

"Look at the moon."

The all did, staring at the metallic blue streams of sand floating around it.

"No look at me."

They all stared at the brilliant white of his robes, face and hair. They didn't understand at first, but just kept looking back and forth from the blue orb and the white man until Jack finally realized.

"You don't mean—"

Manny nodded.

"Oblivion and I must unite our powers to create Cael and restore balance to the world."

"But Manny," said Tooth, speaking for the first time, "You said that the humans were saying that he was a myth. How are you so sure that it'll work, or even if he's real?"

She had a very good point, but what the moon spirit had said next blew her remark out of the water. He smirked, and stated, "Why, Toothiana, you're being awfully pessimistic. After all, before the fight with Pitch twenty years ago, _you _were also just a myth."

Tooth was completely silent, and just floated back beside Bunny.

"But there is something missing," said Manny, addressing the seasons again, "The spell will only work if we have _all _of the powers of each other combined."

"So?" said Leland, crossing his arms. He was being slightly pessimistic tonight as well.

"That was why I gave the four of you stars," said Manny, "Oblivion has a piece of herself inside each of you, and the stars were intended to counter whatever powers that she gave you. But who said they couldn't release them from you as well?"


	22. On Dragon-back

**A/N: Sorry this took so long guys…I had no idea how to work out the plot for this chapter.**

**Speaking of plot, I've decided that I want to change Kelda's past, and I'll replace the content of that chapter (Chapter 18: Memories) with her new story. I just wasn't really feeling the whole animal thing…:/**

**But still, thank you for reading, and I hope for your continued support :) **

**-Andrea**

* * *

"I can see that you have questions, Jack Frost."

Before Jack had even gotten within a foot from Manny, the white spirit had already made his statement, which took Jack by surprise. Could Manny read minds as well?

"Yes, yes I do." he said, walking forward so that he stood side by side with the moon. "What are we going to do next?"

Manny was still, and Jack didn't know whether to take it as a good sign or not. He tried asking the question again. No response.

"You know, maybe I should just—"

"Is that really your only question, Jack?"

Silence reigned over their part of the wood. What did Manny mean by that?

"Um…I'm not sure, sir—"

At this the white spirit laughed. It wasn't as haunting as Jack had expected, but almost warm, no matter how cold Manny's eyes were.

"Sir?" he said, through gasps of air, "I haven't heard that one before…"

His laughter stopped quickly, almost as soon as it had came. The once ridiculous face that he held a minute ago was now replaced by his regal position.

"But really Jack," he said, staring back at the teenager, "What else is on your mind?"

The frost spirit thought for a moment. What else could he possibly ask? Before, he had a million questions that he would die to get the answers for, but that was before he met the guardians. Now, it seemed like his whole life had been laid out and explained for him, and no matter how much trouble he had (and there was indeed a _ton, _mind you), he would just smile and bear it, because everything in his life was perfect…

"Yes, I do have another question," said Jack, and the moon smiled, indicating that he was ready to answer whatever Jack would ask.

"After I became Jack Frost," he said, "why did you keep me alone for three hundred years?"

Before he responded, Manny averted his eyes and gazed at the metallic-blue orb that was glowing in the sky. It wasn't half as bright as the moon would be, but looked strangely lighter than the black sky around it. Jack wasn't really a fan of the night ever since the Pitch Black incident, but Oblivion made him miss the moon…that was strange since the moon was standing right beside him.

"Jack," he said, in the most caring voice that Jack had ever heard from a man, "I just want you to know that I treat every single one of you like a child of mine, and—"

"Just answer the question."

Silence flew over them, and Manny sighed at how impatient Jack seemed.

"I left you alone because I knew that that was the only way that you could accept the fact that I wanted you as a guardian. If you were alone…and you found out that there were other spirits that were there to guard and guide you…I just thought that that would make you open up to them more."

Jack smirked. "In case you didn't notice, I did the exact opposite."

Manny nodded. "I know."

They silenced again, Jack noticing that Manny wasn't taking his comment as a joke. He really _had _tried to get him to accept the guardians.

"But you did end up accepting them, didn't you?" said the white spirit, "You've opened up to them so much that you've just kissed one of them."

_How the hell did he know? _Thought Jack, confirming his earlier idea about Manny being able to read minds. But the white spirit just turned to him and smirked, and Jack just unconsciously mirrored his actions.

"You still haven't answered my previous question," said Jack, and Manny's grin widened.

"We need to create Cael if we want to restore peace to the world," he said, "But we need Oblivion for that."

This confused Jack just a little bit. "What do you mean, exactly?"

The moon spirit turned around, and began walking briskly towards the dragon.

"Manny?" Jack said, almost running to keep up with him, "Manny? Where are you—?"

"Everybody on!" he yelled, while climbing up on Solithus's back. All of the other spirits stood up from their original positions, and seated themselves in the grooves on the dragon's spine. Jack was the last one to get on, seated behind Leland and in front of Tooth near the top of the dragon's spine. Manny was place right on the back of Solithus's neck.

"Alright," said Bunny, "Now that you dags are actually doing something interesting now, where on bloody Earth are we going?"

Manny didn't turn around to face the rabbit, but Jack could see the wide smirk forming on his face just by looking at the back of his head. "Who said we were staying on Earth?"

That didn't sound good at all.

And in a flash, they were soaring high up into the air, shooting up vertically into the atmosphere. They all heard Bunny's screams, and Jack would've laughed at the rabbit if he weren't so terrified himself. Sure, he absolutely _loved _flying, but this was more dangerous than anything that he'd ever been through (and danger was practically his middle name).

Now the only sound that he could hear was the wind blowing violently through his ears. There was a brief moment where they flew up into a cloud, and Jack could feel his clothing getting soaked from it. He almost screamed, but Tooth was shouting and grabbed onto him from behind, wrapping her arms tightly around his chest.

Jack was thankful that no one could see the blue tinge forming on his face.

But that little distraction of Tooth cling onto him tightly was gone, and replaced with the pure fear as they kept flying higher and higher. He closed his eyes and didn't dare to open them again. _Why was Manny doing this? Where was he taking them?_

But then Jack realized…

'_We need to create Cael if we want to restore peace to the world. But we need Oblivion for that'_

Manny was taking them to the moon.

And without warning, Jack felt the gravity let go of him, and suddenly the rapid flight stopped.

What surprised Jack the most was the fact that he was completely all right. He didn't have any trouble breathing, even with the lack of oxygen. Maybe it was because he was an immortal being that he was perfectly fine.

"Right there!" Manny yelled, pointing to the giant glowing orb that lay right up ahead. The streams of sand were still shooting around it, circling it and making it seem more eerie than before.

It was the final destination on their journey.

"You know," said Manny, turning back to the spirits behind him, "human's will want to remember this."

"What do you mean by that?" said Tooth, finally letting go of Jack.

"What I mean is, humans love to document any kind of legend they hear about. I can't wait to hear an installment of 'The Adventures of the Guardians'."

They all couldn't hide their smiles at what Manny said next.

"You're worth remembering."

And so Solithus flew onward, the spirits flying towards what might be their last moment.


End file.
